Miami Herald: Broward school boundary changes take step forward

The Miami Herald published this article on October 29, 2009

The Broward school district approved the first in what could be a series of boundary changes that will affect which schools kids attend.

By PATRICIA MAZZEI

pmazzei@MiamiHerald.com

Ten-year-old Scott Gutstein is worried. The fifth-grader at Embassy Creek Elementary was looking forward to moving on to Cooper City’s Pioneer Middle next year along with the rest of his classmates.

But on Tuesday, the Broward School Board voted to forge ahead with a plan to change attendance boundaries to help alleviate overcrowding at the school. That will mean shuffling hundreds of current and future Pioneer students to less-crowded schools.

“They’re talking about it at lunch,” said Kecia Wong, Scott’s mom. “They’re very upset.”

The Pioneer case is the only significant boundary change on the table for the 2010-11 school year, and tinkering with boundaries is often controversial. But thousands of students across the county could be forced to move for 2011-12.

This year, drastic cuts to the district’s construction budget — and a ruling from the state that Broward has too many empty seats to justify building schools — eliminated dozens of classroom additions and several new schools that would have relieved overcrowding in western Broward schools.

Under an agreement between the school district and Broward cities and the county, schools cannot exceed a certain level of overcrowding. The over-enrolled western schools — with no relief coming from new construction — leave the district with two options. The first would be to redraw boundaries and move kids from western schools to under-enrolled eastern ones, creating a “domino effect” of boundary moves that would displace thousands of kids from their current schools — a politically unpopular choice.

The second option is to change the agreement itself to allow more wiggle room before a school is considered overcrowded. That’s what the board wants to try first.

Board members agreed in August to ask cities and the county to measure enrollment at schools by region. Overcrowding is now determined on a more stringent school-by-school basis. The district already brought up the issue with the Broward League of Cities, but amending interlocal agreements is typically a lengthy process. And in the meantime, parents of Pioneer students or soon-to-be students want the board to reach out to them.

`TEARING .. FABRIC’

“They should really work a little bit more with us,” parent Jodi Baumel said. “It’s really tearing at the fabric of Cooper City.”

If the boundary change goes through, about 170 incoming sixth- and seventh-graders at Pioneer would have to transfer. Where they would go is still unsettled: One option has kids going to Pines Middle; the other to Driftwood Middle in Hollywood.

Under either proposal, to make room for Pioneer students, another 170 kids who now go to Pines or about 185 who go to Driftwood would be transferred to Apollo Middle, also in Hollywood.

Meetings asking parents which option they prefer will begin next week, said Leslie Brown, the district’s director of educational programs.

Cooper City parents packed Tuesday’s workshop, saying their kids are worried they will have to leave their school or be separated from their friends.

FACEBOOK PLEA

Some kids have already created a Facebook page opposing the boundary switch, titled “We want to go to Pioneer Middle School!!!!!”

Parents were particularly concerned because their area is part of the School Board district that used to be represented by suspended board member Beverly Gallagher, who was arrested last month as part of a federal corruption sting. Gallagher has pleaded not guilty.

On Monday, Gov. Charlie Crist appointed lawyer and former GOP leader Kevin Tynan to replace Gallagher, but he likely won’t be sworn in until next week — and even then, parents said it would take a while to bring Tynan up to speed.

Board members considered punting on the Pioneer boundary switch, putting it on hold for a year while the district tries to find a way around reshuffling students.

But if the district does not follow through with the Pioneer switch this year, and it does not find a way to avoid the boundary change altogether, students from all three grades at Pioneer — sixth, seventh and eighth — would have to transfer at the same time in two years. Ultimately, board members decided to move forward with the change now.

`INEVITABLE’

“Every school that I’ve ever worked with on boundaries says, `Give us one more year,’ and, guess what, when that’s been done it always works out that you have to make boundary changes,” board member Bob Parks said. “My experience is when you wait, it just postpones the inevitable.”