A vote is expected today in Pasco County on the school board's controversial plan to reshape districts. 

The proposed move has prompted protests for several months, especially in west-central Pasco. 

District officials said the move is necessary to ease overcrowding at multiple schools while filling seats at others. 

At the center of the protest are students and teachers at Mitchell High and Seven Springs Middle schools. The district's boundary committee said it has looked at several rezoning options. 

Parents, meanwhile, say the district boundary change is unneccesary and will rip students away from their friends and tear tight knit communities apart. 

"Now they (students) won't be doing their afterschool activities together," said Parent Heather Goldstein of potential changes. "They won't be able to ride their bikes to each other’s houses because the hours are different at schools - it's just a mess, it's really sad that the kids are suffering."

The potential changes are due to overcrowding in two pockets of the county, west-central and central. 

But the hot-button potential change involves Seven Springs Middle and Mitchell High. 

School board officials say the boundary change wil reduce student counts at those schools by a few hundred and will provide a better, less crowded educated for all students. 

The plan would add students to the surrounding schools.

Parents said the plan is not only bad for students but makes no sense considering the transportation needs of students to and from school. 

"It is 2.0 miles exactly to our school that they just kicked us out of," said Parent Jeannie Dunning said after a recent school board meeting. "It is 8.7 miles to the new school they just sent us to, there's going to be neighborhoods that they kept today driving past us."

School officials said the decision on the boundary change will be based in part on what is best for a growing school district and also the parent input from several meetings dating back to last year. 

The vote is scheduled to take place at tonight's 6 p.m. school board meeting and several parents said they will take part in public comments before the final vote.