School Board
Seminole parents against rezoning plan to get day in court
By Dave Weber of the Orlando Sentinel
Published Jun 7, 2005

SANFORD -- Parents who hope to reverse new attendance zones for Seminole County high schools Monday persuaded a judge to hear their claim that the School Board violated the state's strict open-meetings law in the school-zoning process.

Circuit Judge Debra Nelson brushed aside the School Board's request to dismiss the suit brought by parents dissatisfied with the school-zone plan and set a hearing for June 24.

"All we are asking is that they simply go back and do it right," said Dennis Wells, an attorney representing parents from the Sabal Point community who want their children to remain at Lake Brantley High rather than be shifted to Lyman High.

At stake is where roughly 1,500 students will attend high school in the fall. They must switch schools under the rezoning plan adopted by the School Board in April after it argued with parents for months.

Another 1,400 students are being permitted to remain at current schools if they find their own rides. They are entitled to transportation if the new attendance zones are tossed out.

Some students in each of the county's eight regular high schools are affected by the new school zones, which officials say are needed to reduce crowding at some schools, fill vacant seats in others and provide students for the new Hagerty High set to open in Oviedo in August.

Parents from Sabal Point have been joined in the suit by residents of Tuscawilla, who don't want students in that Winter Springs community transferred from Winter Springs High to Oviedo High.

Together, they are building a case that a series of "Government in the Sunshine" violations greased the way for the School Board to approve the new attendance zones despite objections from hundreds of parents. They point to rezoning-committee meetings at which the public was not permitted to listen to proceedings, contradictory newspaper ads on what rezoning plans the School Board intended to consider and an October bus tour of school zones by the School Board that excluded the public.

"The School Board for so long has been out of check. No one has held it to task," said Damon Chase, an attorney representing the Tuscawilla Homeowners Association.

School Board members say they never broke the law.

Still, School Board Attorney Ned Julian hedged his case Monday by saying that even if an unintended violation occurred along the way, parents had numerous opportunities to speak out in public meetings before the School Board settled on the new zones.

"The School Board is not obligated to agree with the public," Julian said.

The attendance zones should stand despite any possible violations, he said. Students have been assigned to schools and class schedules have been drawn based on the new zones.

A state administrative hearing judge in March found no fault with the School Board's decision on school zones but left the issue of possible "Sunshine" law violations to the circuit court. Parents are challenging the administrative decision in the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.

SeminoleCountyWatch.com