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Updated: Jun 19th, 2005 - 20:05:13 |
SANFORD -- A state administrative judge gave his legal blessing to new attendance zones for Seminole County high schools Thursday, clearing the way for the School Board to hurriedly approve the new zones today.
Judge Jeff Clark ruled in Tallahassee that parents challenging the rezoning failed to prove that the School Board exceeded its authority or broke the law in redrawing the map of where teens will go to school.
On 16 points of contention raised by parents opposed to the rezoning, Clark sided with the School Board on every one.
Parents who fought to keep their children at Lake Brantley and Winter Springs high schools said they were disappointed in the judge's ruling.
"We wanted our kids to go to Lake Brantley High because it is the closest school to us," said Dennis Wells, who lives in the Sabal Point community.
Susan Bethel, another Sabal Point parent, said residents see nearby Lake Brantley High as their neighborhood school and don't want to switch.
Sabal Point students will be reassigned to Lyman High under the rezoning plan recommended by Superintendent Bill Vogel and tentatively approved by the School Board in October.
Final approval was halted when parents filed the administrative challenge in November.
Students in the eastern part of the Tuscawilla community, the second major area of concern among parents, will be shifted from Winter Springs High to Oviedo High.
School-district officials say the rezoning will reduce crowding at some schools, fill vacant seats in others and provide students for the new Hagerty High opening in Oviedo in the fall.
Vogel said Thursday that during a special meeting set for 8 a.m. today at the school-district office in Sanford, he will recommend that the School Board finally adopt the new attendance zones.
Up to 5,000 students at eight high schools across the county could be affected by the changes, although students can remain at their current schools until graduation if they can provide their own transportation. Many parents said that will be impossible.
Vogel said he hopes the community can put the rezoning fight behind it.
"It is not about winners and losers. The legal proceedings have been stressful for all concerned," said Vogel, who promised to meet with parents who remain unhappy.
"I want to make sure any concerns have been addressed."
Preparations for the coming school year, including assignment of students and teachers and creation of class schedules, have been delayed for several months while the rezoning was in limbo. Schools now must rush to do the work.
Some parents agreed it's time to move on.
"Our concern was that they let us know what is happening so we can prepare for next year," said Craig Van Hooven of Longwood, whose son Chris will attend Lyman High next year instead of Lake Mary High.
But Sabal Point and Tuscawilla parents may not be ready to quit.
Wells from Sabal Point and Damon Chase, an attorney who represents the Tuscawilla community, said parents might take their challenge to circuit court.
The parents are trying to build a case that the School Board violated Florida's "Government in the Sunshine" open-meetings laws in the rezoning process. They point in particular to an October bus tour of schools by board members when rezoning was openly discussed.
School Board Chairman Jeanne Morris and other board members have said they did not break the law.
Another alternative for parents is to appeal Clark's decision to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. However, Chase said, the only grounds would be that Clark made some legal error in his decision.
Seminole County Watch.com
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