Stay informed on Pinellas school closings

Starting Dec. 1, look for a feature on tampabay.com that will serve as a forum for sharing information and answering questions regarding the Pinellas school closings. This is an unusual and fast-moving issue and we will try to keep everyone as well-informed as we can. When the site is up and running, we’ll let you know it right here.

The School Board this week tentatively decided to merge four middle schools into two and will meet Dec. 2 to discuss the proposed closing of five elementary schools, all part of an effort to address declining enrollment and a projected $40-million budget shortfall for 2009-10. The first formal vote on the proposals is set for Dec. 9. The second and final vote could come at the board’s regular meeting on Jan. 13.

In the meantime, you can study up using the following materials:

* The power point presentation given to the School Board on Tuesday. It includes statistics on enrollment decline and estimated savings of closing schools.

* A summary of this year’s budget.

* A comparison of how Pinellas stacks up to other large Florida counties in several spending categories (takes awhile to download).

* Two recent memos from district officials describing the budget situation. One is dated Oct. 22, the other Nov. 12.

*

Comments

[Safety First]

One thing nobody has brought up for discussion is the structural safety of the Southside building. It is almost a hundred years old and has not been well maintained. It could be that if a structural engineer inspected it it might be found structurally unsound or condemned. There may even be asbestos in the building and other toxins that make it classifiable as a "sick building". Also given its age it would be difficult to retrofit for disabled students and in fact probably this has never been done in violation of law. The District would bear huge liability were a tragedy to occur because of the condition of the building. The move may be unavoidable for this reason.

[Rudy Huxtable]

Close the Administration Building and move all the head honchos (which should be cut 50%..there are simply TOO many) to the already closed South Ward building. These employees are on the fringe..they do NOT affect the classroom much at all.

[BBMOM]

12:11 - I totally disagree. This was talked about last year and never was implemented. I hope this SB will show some backbone and follow through on the things that need to be changed, for the good of all the students. I will be inconvenienced also and will have to find transportation for my kids to their schools if I want them to stay where they are. But this needs to be done, now not later. Why keep putting it off.

Frans at 8:55; it is still here; go to the links on the left and click on "pinellas county" and it is back under the entries for November 18. Posting seems to have levelled off, however. I think everyone got distracted by the blog about the kid getting arrested for farting.

One of the S/Side parents told some folks that she has spoken with Carol Cook (got Carol "live" on the phone) and Carol felt the Times article was "misleading" for portraying all of this as a done deal when it is far from that so they are all ready backing off of this -- the same thing happens every year, by the way. It wouldn't be a normal year at PCSB if admin. didn't try to close S/side, and if the parents and community didn't beat it back with the mother of all grassroots efforts. It wouldbe nice to have a year off from this same drama every once in awhile. I predict in January this entire idea will be dead. The latest news is that Madeira is also balking. (same thing happened when they tried to merge Thurgood/S/side last year.) Give it up PCSB.

[Frans van Haaren]

What happened to the original blog. It was one of the liveliest ones in recent memory? Did it get axed and, if so, why do we have to wait until 12/01 to get back to the discussion?

Parents need to call their Florida lawmakers and tell them to fund the class size ammendment. They are not properly funding this ammendment. Someone should threaten a law suit. Maybe they will move money out of their palm tree and highway median fund. They spend more on palm trees then students.