Is your child's Pinellas school closing? What next?

You may have been holding out hope that the Pinellas School Board would find other solutions besides closing your school. But now it's final. The board voted to shut seven schools and cancel busing for thousands of students to help balance the budget.

Since yesterday's board meeting, have you been discussing options outside the Pinellas school district? What are other parents saying at your school? Let us know whether you are making plans for next school year and how you are preparing your children for the changes.

Pinellas school officials released a map that shows possible new zone boundaries for elementary schools (Download elemmap.pdf) next year. Another map showing changes to middle school (Download midskulmap.pdf) zone boundaries also is available.

If the maps that the district has published don't help you figure out which school your kids are assigned to, the district says you can "call student assignment, (727) 588-6210 and a staff member can look it up. ... The office is working to develop an automated online process."

Karen McAllister, tampabay.com

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Comments

I heard that a few of the school board members, namely Clark don't agree with Jannsen decisions. Haven't heard her do much either.... Come on guys... Stand up to this Janssen freak!

[father of two]

Geez talk about a deer in headlights. One ugly broad, too. Seems like the outside matches the incompetent, corrupt inside moral character.

[teacher with attitude]

Janssen treats teachers like crap! Honestly, do you expect she cares one bit about your kids? Come on parents, take off the rose colored glasses. Jannsen is pulling a fast one on you.

Start with Janssen. What a piece of work she is! Tell me.... do you really trust the taxpaying funds in the hands of a liar like this? The school board is an ignorant and willing participant in any choices she makes. Business as usual in Pinellas County Schools.

Nope. It doesn't. Those PCSB officials are cold, callous, and interested only in preserving their own secret agendas and pocket books. They all need to go!

The district seems to be short on answers.

I would not bet on any promises. It seems all promises the district makes are made to be broken.

If they are willing to violate the teachers' contract and defy a court appointed arbitrator, do you really think what school your child attends matters to them?

and what about current 5th graders at Mad beach? will they have the same priority for 6th grade as incoming fundamental kids? or are they going to have to apply as "non-fundamemtal" elementary kids? the questions go on and on...and it does seem like there is no way the space could accomadate...

to clarify further: if a child gets into Mad beach at the kindergarten level (or any elementary level) are they guranteed a seat through the 8th grade?

I also wonder this: now that Mad Beach is a k-8 program, will outgoing Mad Beach 5th graders be an "automatic" at Mad Beach 6th grade? If so, that leaves very limited seats for kids from the other fundamental elementary programs and basically no chance of anyone getting in at the 6th grade level....where do the kids from Lakeview, Pasadena etc now go primarily? you ADDED an elementary fundamental program and took away 2 fundamental middle schools..see what I mean??

[KJ]

Here is what a Southside parent wants to know: Will even part of the (enticing) marine science component be retained at Madeira Beach? What if too many Southside/Coachman kids want the limited number of seats at Mad Beach? What will happen to all the Southside/Coachman talented staff, not to mention the others whose schools were closed? Can Madeira Beach Elementary possibly handle all the kids from the now-closed Gulf Beaches Elem? Will Thurgood Fundamental continue to provide busing, and for how long?

[retiredteacher]

Start cutting at the top. We have administrators who are willing to waste money going to court because they are defying the arbitrator's decision. SSDD--nothing has changed. We need to clean out the Taj, starting with "superintendents" whose duties include justifying job titles. If they don't start cutting the fat cats, the townsfolk will start arriving with torches and pitchforks.

Instead of just moving forward and rewarding the least capable of our species by bailing them out, making excuses for their incompetence and ignoring blatant stupidity-why not just face the difficult facts and allow those responsible to suffer the punishment?

Keep bailing out wall street? Ignore incompetent and corrupt leaders? Allow community decision makers to make bad decisions? Sacrifice a generation of children so we can allow bureaucrats to continue doing business as usual?

The changes in the school system need to happen at the top.

Teachers continue teaching in spite of what we throw at them.

Students continue learning (good and bad lessons) in spite of the environment we put them in...

They change. Believe me, students and teachers change to adapt to their environment. No doubt about that. But, what is the result? Are the adaptations making us stronger or weaker as a whole?

At some point someone has to stand up and say NO.

Some one has to provide a different perspective. The admins and the school board are all locked away making deals among one another, justifying their behavior and their decisions as if they hold the only valid perspective to what's happening. In the mean time, they've missed the big picture.

They've failed to look at the horizon
because they're too busy looking at one another bobbing their heads up and down in agreement.

Don't the schools have a pass/fail system?

Students and teachers are passing, but their "leadership" is failing. Miserably.

We have had to talk to our children about friends and family losing jobs this year, why a family member lost their life in Iraq, why some people hated the idea of an African American president, why politicians and big corporations cheat folks out of their retirement funds, why we can't afford more for christmas because we can barely pay for gas..and on and on and on...
these closings are a reflection of our scary and unsure times...we are trying to help our children understand that change is upon us and we must be resiliant and strong in the face of it..we are all being called to sacrifice and change....hopefully we will grow from this as a community, make some new friends and move forward together through tough times...

We find ourselves referring to our favorite Charles Darwin quote often:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."