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Administrators Rethink High School Boundaries

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 4, 2009

TAMPA - Hillsborough County school administrators have changed some of the district's planned attendance zones after hearing from hundreds of families concerned about the proposal.

The district had planned to move 1,684 students from Sickles High School to the new Steinbrenner High School when it opens in the northwestern part of the county. Instead, about 200 of those students will get to stay at Sickles.

Also, 230 students whom the district planned to send from Durant High to Plant City High will stay at Durant.

The original proposal was supposed to facilitate the opening of Strawberry Crest High, which would draw students mostly from crowded Plant City High.

The district made the newest changes despite receiving "optimum" maps from SeerAnalytics, the company hired to draw the best possible boundaries.

"Drawing boundaries is more than a numbers process," said Bill Person, Hillsborough's general director of student placement and support. "I think this shows we listened."

But administrators still plan to shuffle more than 3,500 students throughout the northern and eastern parts of the county to fill the new schools.

The Hillsborough County School Board will consider the changes when it meets next week.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

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