Wesley Chapels newest high school is set to open off Old Pasco Rd. next fall. While High School GGG may not have an official name yet, it does now have a proposed zone with a pool of students to draw from in order to fill its hallways.
Wiregrass Ranch and Wesley Chapel high schools, as well as Dr. John Long and Thomas Weightman middle schools, are getting some much needed relief, and Seven Oaks, a vocal community in the process, survived unscathed despite concerns from residents it would be chopped up to achieve the county’s goals.
A third meeting to determine the new schools boundaries was held on Thursday morning in Wesley Chapel Highs media center, with the Pascos School Boundary Committee (SBC) debating 14 options. It swiftly moved through most of the options before option 12 emerged as the choice.
GGG will draw from a swath of homes that line the west side of I-75, extending from north of Old Pasco Rd. all the way down to County Line Rd.
The most congested school in Pasco County is Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH), which currently has 2,495 students (which means it is at 153 percent of its capacity of 1,633), and its primary feeder school, Dr. John Long Middle School (JLMS).
JLMS, with 1,870 students, currently is at 147 percent of its capacity of 1,327. And, both schools are located in the fast-growing Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI), so something had to be done to accommodate an ever-growing number of students.
The option adopted reduces WRH by 782 students, or 31 percent. That leaves it only 80 students over capacity, and would eliminate the need for 10-period schools days, something the school had to resort to beginning in 2015-16 because of overcrowding.
JLMS is reduced by 612 students, or 33 percent, putting it 69 students under capacity.
WCH, which was already over capacity, gains 45 students, and is at 114 percent capacity, while TWM picks up 43 students, and is at 126 percent capacity.
To get to those numbers, WRH and JLMS students currently zoned for those two schools but living in communities on the western edge of the current boundary like Country Walk, Fox Ridge, Meadow Pointe III and IV, Wyndfields and Union Park will now be re-zoned to attend Wesley Chapel High and Weightman Middle.
For some students, such as those living in Meadow Pointe III and Union Park, that means a much longer drive to school, which was considered.
Wesley Chapel principal Hetzler-Nettles and Wiregrass Ranch principal Robyn White say the hardest thing about the process was trying to consider future growth in the plans. An Epperson Ranch development as part of of potential Connected City project could bring major growth to Wesley Chapel, while the Wiregrass Ranch area continues to expand as well.
“You just don’t know,” White said. “It’s hard to look into the future without knowing who will be in all these new locations.”
The SBC, which is made up of staff representatives from every school as well as parents from each and led by the director of planning for the Pasco School District, Chris Williams, will present Option 12 to the public on Tuesday, November 29 (where parents will be in attendance and allowed to weigh in) before the Pasco County School Board can vote to approve them or not.
“I thought it went well,” said Hetzler-Nettles. “I came in thinking one way and ended up choosing an option that wasn’t even on the table in the second meeting.”
Hetzler-Nettles said her only surprise was that it passed unanimously.
Roughly 25 parents were on hand to watch the process, most from Seven Oaks. When Option 20, the last one to recommend re-zoning Seven Oaks, was voted out, a small, collective sigh could be heard.
A group of residents called Seven Oaks Voice submitted a six-page recommendation at the Sept. 29 meeting, and revised it for Thursday’s meeting, hoping to spare their subdivisions which are located east of I-75 and north of S.R. 56 from being broken up.
According to maps provided by the county, 20 percent of the current WRH population, or 509 students, live in Seven Oaks, and 22 percent of JLMS enrollment, or 414 students, live there as well. If the plan is to reduce the student bodies at those schools, an examination of Seven Oaks was unavoidable, and in fact, 10 of the 14 options called for either splitting up the community or re-zoning it for GGG or WCH.
In its proposal, Seven Oaks Voice suggested beginning the rezoning process with communities located west of I-75 (Westbrook Estates, Lexington Oaks, etc.), as well as those east of Meadow Pointe Blvd. (Union Park, Windsor, Country Walk and the Double Branch Elementary zone).
The recommendation said the current Seven Oaks DRI provides stability and wont be a future strain due to limited future growth potential, while the other communities are in high-growth areas. Seven Oaks Voice also suggested that established communities should have priority over newer communities with the same proximity to JLMS and WRH.
Also, by leaving Seven Oaks in its current school zone, the county also can avoid transportation issues, as it claims the subdivision is one of the furthest away from GGG.
The SBC was charged with considering socio-economic balance, maintaining feeder patterns, future growth in certain areas (especially in Wiregrass Ranch), transportation and subdivision integrity before finalizing a proposal.
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