About 100 Pasco County parents stormed the district school board meeting Tuesday morning to make a plea to delay the district's plan to rezone several schools.

The district announced its plan at the beginning of the year, and parents aren't happy.

Adrenaline is running through the veins of many Pasco County parents who showed up at the board meeting in uniform shirts that read "Keep Calm Hold the Lines."

"We requested a delay in the rezone, we requested a delay in the boundary committee that starts the rezone process tomorrow, and it was completely ignored," said parent Christine Stahl.

New boundaries are being drawn for several schools, but parents from Mitchell High School and Seven Springs Middle Schools are especially fired up.

"When you think about where you want to plant your family, it didn't include uprooting them where you didn't have a choice," said parent Heide Janshon.

Mitchell High was built for 1,853 students. It has 2,195 enrolled, putting it 18 percent over capacity.

Seven Springs Middle was built for 1,350 students. It has 1,649 enrolled, or 22 percent over capacity.

Because of the overcrowding, children from both schools will have to be rezoned to other schools that are under capacity, some up to 11 miles away.

Students from Mitchell High could be rezoned to Anclote High, Gulf High or River Ridge High.

Students from Seven Springs Middle could be rezoned to Gulf Middle, River Ridge Middle, or Paul R. Smith Middle.

Some parents want the rezoning process delayed to possibly come up with better solutions. Some ideas they’ve come up with already are weeding out students who may be using false addresses.

"We already know there's hundreds, the demographics show it. We've started what they've called a witch hunt where people are turning in addresses," said parent David Davis.

"When you think about where you want to plant your family, it didn't include uprooting them where you didn't have a choice." - Parent Heide Janshon.


However, that effort may not help their cause.

"When students or families are dishonest and move into a district that they don't rightfully live in they should not be going to school in those schools,” said Superintendent Kurt Browning. “But the key is how we find it. This district does not have the resources to go knocking on doors."

As for delaying the rezoning process, “If the board chose to delay it a year, we're going to be back here a year from now doing the same thing," said Browning.

Davis responded, “We may be back here in a year as he said, but in that year we'll have known we tried everything we could to find a better solution."

A series of meetings have been scheduled for the committees assigned to each impacted school. After those meetings there will be two public hearings before the boundaries are set.

The boundaries are expected to be set in February and put in place for the next school year.