A committee will make its recommendations this week about changing some school zones in Pasco County.
Parents got their last chance to speak publicly about the changes on Monday night.
- School administrators say overcrowding is a problem
- Parents say they feel left out of process
- Committee to make recommendations Thursday
The district announced its plans at the beginning of the year, but some parents claim they're just finding out about it now.
"My wife has worked at a school for 10 years and did not find out about it until 10 days ago," said Mario Diamantopulos.
School administrators said the district needs to draw new boundaries to ease overcrowding at certain schools and fill up others.
"It's painful. We know that people move into homes based on their schools, but we don't have any choice right now with all the construction in this area," said Linda Cobbe, Pasco County Schools spokeswoman.
"We're going to get even more students and we need to get ahead of it."
The committee is looking at several different maps with different lines. But any way it's redrawn, students will be affected.
Parents said they feel left out of the process.
"It doesn't really matter what we're saying and our opinions," said Valerie Butchko. "Everything keeps getting shot down and they keep telling us they want the parents to be involved, but then when the parents try to get involved, they're not willing to listen to anything that anybody's saying."
School officials said they will be looking at ways to improve the re-zoning process in the future.
For example, they said there could be changes to the way committee members are selected.
"If someone has good ideas that are viable that we can implement next year, certainly we're going to consider it," said Cobbe.
The recommendations will be made Thursday.