No school closings for Diocese of St. Petersburg -- for now

The news that the Archdiocese of Miami plans to close six of its schools because of funding woes got us wondering whether the same might be true for the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Things are tough all over, right?

Diocese spokesman Frank Murphy told the Gradebook that the church has no plans to close any schools at the moment.

"However," Murphy continued -- you knew one of those was coming -- "as you've seen schools close in Pinellas County in various areas, the demographics are shifting." Some of the Catholic schools in the region have seen big enrollment dips, while others have grown.

"So we are always looking at and asking, 'How do we position our schools?' " Murphy said.

Bishop Lynch has put together a task force to examine which schools might need to expand and which might need to close. Murphy expected the study to be complete in about a year.

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A weekend interview with ...

... Peggy O'Shea, chairwoman of the Pinellas School Board. The Pinellas board voted unanimously earlier this week to close seven elementary schools and reassign thousands of students. O'Shea spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the vote, the rationale behind it and the expected outcomes.

How hard is it for you to be making these decisions regarding the boundaries and the school closures?

They're really two separate issues. The school closures is tough. You get parents who are so involved in their school and it's part of the community they live in. You hate to take that away. We looked at all kinds of opportunities to avoid that. But the bottom line came when we looked at the budget and the budget projections and the cuts coming from the state. It just became impossible. We haven't even reached all the budget cuts we have to make yet. Coupled with the fact that we have less students and we're projected to continue to have less students over the next few years, which means we don't need as many schools with less kids. So for efficiency -- with or without the budget implications, there's a certain efficiency as guardians of the taxpayers' money that we need to take into account.

Some of the parents pointed out you were closing down schools that are well regarded and have strong community support, whereas some other schools might not have had that same level of success. How do you pick which schools you must close?

Our student assignment department looked at it in terms of where kids are and where we have other schools nearby to put them in. We looked from a financial perspective the cost of running those buildings. Risk management -- what it costs to insure those buildings. What our maintenance costs are. Those kinds of things. Because the ones we closed are all small schools that had under 400 students. Whereas when you see newer elementary schools in the state of Florida today, they're built to house 750-800 kids. That's what the state requires you build from now on. So even look at some of them and say, Maybe you could build a larger school on them. Some of the sites aren't large enough, because they're older, smaller areas built several years ago. Some of them in the early 1900s, one of them in the 1950s. That was the age range of the schools we were looking at.

So it didn't have as much to do with whether the school was an A school or whether it had a strong PTA?

Pinellas parents not alone in facing closures

Pinellas is planning to close seven more schools. It recently closed three others. With enrollment shrinking and finances tight, there's a good chance more closures could come.

Perhaps it comes as cold comfort, but, parents, you're not alone in your angst.

In this morning's news, other media have reported:

• Leon County is looking at closing small, inefficient schools (WCTV in Tallahassee);
• Escambia County will close another elementary school (Pensacola News-Journal); and
• Bay County plans to merge some middle schools (Panama City News Herald)

In the past year, Volusia closed seven schools, too. Others have explored the idea. Not the most cheery of news. Should the Florida PTA create a support group?

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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Readers react to word of potential school closings

Pinellas school administrators have identified five elementary schools that could be closed next year as the district deals with budget problems and long-running enrollment declines. Parents are having their say here in the Gradebook and in the story comments section.

They're outraged that they can't speak at today's board meeting. They want board members to reduce their own pay. And they're defending their local schools.

A sampling of comments from this morning's story:

Disgusted: "The School Board is having a 5 hour workshop and they are not inviting the public to speak! This is outrageous and will be reflected in the next election! If the parents are not allowed to be heard, then we have lost our right to free speech."

Ga. parent: "As a parent of 2 of the 7000 students lost in Pinellas since 2005, rediculous start times, lengthy and unreliable busing, unruly and undisciplined students and apathetic teachers and administrators were the leading reasons for our decision to move."

David: "There is no way a school system the size of Pinellas should be run on a county basis. Let the cities run their own schools. Oh, and eliminate busing -- it didn't work then, and it doesn't work now. Get rid of those School Board degenerates!"

Your take?

[Times file photo]