OLDSMAR, Fla. — Next week, Oldsmar City Council members will vote on whether to formally support making Oldsmar Elementary a K-8 school.
Currently, students at Oldsmar Elementary leave the community to go to middle school after the fifth grade. But recently at city council, the mayor of Oldsmar brought up the idea of adding middle schoolers to Oldsmar Elementary. Many residents support the potential change.
“To have middle school here and to have that option for us to keep our kids here locally and not be on the bus two hours a day, I’m all for it, “said Oldsmar mother Pammy Grear- Florence.
After Oldsmar Elementary, Florence said she sent her youngest son to a private middle school because she did not like the zoned public school option.
“I would have done it all over again if I had that K-8 option,” Florence said.
The proposal for a K-8 school comes as a new state law allows charter schools to take over space in unused or underperforming public schools. So far, a spokesperson for Pinellas County Public Schools said there has not been a request by a charter school to locate at Oldsmar Elementar, but community leaders said it would be a bad idea and they want to be prepared – just in case there is a request in the future.
“I think it’s difficult to conceptualize how a charter school and an elementary school can operate literally out of the same set of buildings,” said Oldsmar Mayor Katie Gannon. “How does that work as far as administration how do those schools interact with each other? Who has the decision-making authority of who is using the lunchroom? Who’s using the library? I’m sure those logistical problems have answers, but I’d rather avoid them entirely and give our families an option that is proven to work better for them.”
This is not the first time the community has talked about adding sixth, seventh and eighth graders to Oldsmar Elementary, but Mayor Gannon said the new state law is bringing more urgency to the idea. And they already have support from Pinellas School Board Member Eileen Long – who has long advocated for it.
“We all have a stake in this,” School Board Member Long told residents and council members at a recent Oldsmar City Council meeting.
Next Tuesday, council members will vote on a resolution to formally support making Oldsmar Elementary a K-8 public school.
“The goal at this point is to find out more information and get this idea into a format of more than an idea,” Gannon said. “We need solid information, logistical plans on how this would really work and operate and to start working on it.”
The mayor is hoping to work with Pinellas school leaders to organize a community town hall in the near future.
Dalia Dangerfield
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