PASCO COUNTY, Fla. --  Members of the Pasco County school board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve rezoning for West Pasco schools aimed at easing overcrowding in the district.

  • More than 300 students will be impacted
  • Some parents spoke out against plan prior to vote
  • Students will be able to apply for school choice

"It's been a long road," said Superintendent Kurt Browning of the process that began nearly two years ago. A similar set of maps to those voted on at this meeting was previously approved, then thrown out by a judge earlier in the year due to Sunshine Law violations.

Under the new boundaries, some students would be moved from J.W. Mitchell High School and Seven Springs Middle School to River Ridge High and Middle Schools. Some would also be rezoned from Anclote High to Gulf High.

More than 300 students will be impacted.

"It was something we kind of saw coming, but it still seems they didn’t fix the problem," said Bret Toby, a parent of students at Longleaf Elementary, Seven Springs, and Mitchell.

Toby was among a few parents who spoke against the plan at Tuesday's special board meeting. Board members said the new boundaries are needed to help curb classroom crowding in one of the fastest-growing areas of the Tampa Bay area, but Toby and others said they’re frustrated because even with the rezoning, overcrowding will remain an issue.

"That's the sad part, is you had a massive amount of cost and effort that we're going to have to go through again," Toby said.

"They're correct. Those schools are still at capacity or slightly above capacity," said Browning. "I'm not sure that we will get ahead of that until we can get a new high school scheduled to be built, and the way revenues are looking right now, that's going to be awhile."

"We're going to have to look at other options," he continued. "I don't know what those options are, but we're going to certainly keep on top of that and see what we need to do to keep classrooms from being too overcrowded at those two schools."

Browning said the district is readying for construction on Cypress Creek Middle School, which is expected to be completed in 2020. He said next year, leaders will have to look at new boundaries for Wiregrass Ranch High School and Dr. John Long Middle School students who will be moved into Cypress Creek.

As for this latest rezoning, Jim Stanley, a parent involved in the Sunshine Law lawsuit who also filed a legal action against the current rezoning process, said he's looking at legal options to challenge the latest move.

For now, the district plans to send letters to impacted families by the end of this week. They'll contain a web address where students can apply for school choice.

The window to apply for choice will be open for one week. Browning said it will be very rare for students not zoned for Mitchell or Seven Springs to be allowed into those schools.