Pasco school board votes to close, consolidate 3 schools

LAND O’LAKES — Citing academic and financial benefits, the Pasco County School board on Tuesday unanimously agreed to shut three shrinking New Port Richey schools and merge them into a single K-8 campus for the next academic year.

The plan is to close Calusa Elementary, Chasco Elementary and Chasco Middle, and combine them on the Chasco campus.

“I see this as an opportunity for us to bring a K-8 … to west Pasco in an area that we’re not really going to see a new school going up,” board member Cynthia Armstrong said.

She said the effort fits the district’s mission of providing a full range of education options for all children.

Board member Al Hernandez agreed, adding that the proposal is intended to use the district’s financial resources most efficiently.

“Closing a school is never fun. Nobody likes it,” Hernandez said. “This is not a take-away. It is enhancing the community.”

Three people who live in the area told the school board they oppose the merger.

Wyatt Grinage, whose daughter attends Calusa, said he worried that the Chasco school buildings do not have enough space to accommodate all the children coming from Calusa. He raised concerns about the traffic at Chasco, which sits on busy Ridge Road, noting that many Calusa families live too close for bus rides so they likely would be driving to the campus.

Board members stressed the importance of providing crossing guards as well as lessons showing children how to properly cross the street. Assistant superintendent Betsy Kuhn said the district expects to expand the Chasco drop-off and pickup loop for additional cars, and told the board that the campus has plenty of space to house the 1,620 students projected to attend once some modifications are made.

Most importantly, Grinage said, many parents are upset with the idea of losing their neighborhood school.

“We have come to love the staff at Calusa,” he said, pointing out that many might not move to Chasco with the students. “When I think about it, it breaks my heart. Because this school is the fabric of our community.”

District officials said most teachers will move with the students, and other employees will be reassigned but not lose their jobs.

Former county commissioner Christina Fitzpatrick challenged the board over a lack of transparency in bringing the concept forward.

“Parents I spoke to today were still unaware of the change, and staff were being told this was a done deal,” Fitzpatrick said.

The proposal first became public on Aug. 29 when the district sent text messages and emails to families and held meetings with staff members at the three schools.

It came as a surprise to most in the community. But the concept had been swirling behind the scenes for months as district officials discussed different options for dealing with declining enrollment in the west Pasco region.

Calusa Elementary is currently at 65% of its capacity, while Chasco Middle hovers around 73%. Chasco Elementary sits at about 95% full.

The superintendent’s leadership team told board members that the district could save money with a consolidated school by eliminating redundant staff positions, such as cafeteria workers, secretaries and assistant principals. Because the three schools are located within a mile of each other and Calusa students are zoned to attend Chasco Middle for sixth grade, a shift to a single kindergarten through eighth-grade school on the Chasco campus should be relatively smooth, they reasoned.

Though some families were amenable to the change, the concept rankled others, including those unhappy that the district shut down Ridgewood High, which sits next to Calusa, and transformed it into a technical high school six years ago.

This latest proposal is one of many the board has considered to deal with enrollment declines on its edges while the population in the central part of the county booms.

Two years ago, the district closed Mittye P. Locke Elementary because of low enrollment and converted it to an early education center.

Four years ago, it closed Hudson Elementary School, merging it with Northwest Elementary, which was renamed and reconfigured with the middle and high schools on the Cobra Way campus.

Six years ago, the administration asked the board to shut down Lacoochee Elementary as well. But the board refused, citing the school’s importance as a center for the isolated rural community it serves.