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Updated: Jun 19th, 2005 - 20:05:13 |
SANFORD -- Where many Seminole County students will attend high school in the fall remains in question, with the issue to be wrestled out in court this summer.
Parents dissatisfied with the new attendance zones approved by the School Board in April have challenges pending in both state Circuit Court and the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. They have asked the courts to move swiftly, but it is uncertain whether the cases can be resolved before school resumes Aug. 1.
About 1,500 students in the eight regular high schools across the county are scheduled to move. Another 1,400 will be permitted to stay at schools they have been attending because they agreed to come up with their own transportation and met other stipulations.
Officials say the rezoning is necessary to reduce overcrowding in some schools, fill vacant seats in others and provide students for the new Hagerty High in Oviedo.
The circuit court suit seeks an injunction to set aside the new attendance zones while the case is pending. "It is important to parents to know where their children are going to school next year," said Damon Chase, an attorney representing Tuscawilla area residents involved in the lawsuits.
Some Tuscawilla residents are unhappy their children are being switched from Winter Springs High School to Oviedo High. They have joined with parents in the Sabal Point community, who are upset their children are being shifted from Lake Brantley High to Lyman High.
Circuit Judge Debra Nelson ruled Wednesday that she will not cover the same ground as the Daytona appeal court, whose decision could trump her judgment. But she set a hearing for Monday to consider parents' charges that the School Board violated Florida's public-meetings law in deciding which students would go where.
School Board attorney Ned Julian said the board did not violate the law.
Seminole County Watch.com
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