Parents Mobilize Against Pinellas Plan to Close Seven Schools Ahead of Sept. 22 Hearing

Parents across Pinellas County are organizing against a district plan to close seven schools, with a petition to save one campus alone gathering 411 signatures in three days. The pushback comes just over a week before the school board takes formal public comment on Sept. 22 in Largo, and about a month before members are expected to vote on the plan Oct. 13.

Superintendent Kevin Hendrick's proposal, unveiled at a Sept. 10 board workshop, would close six elementary schools, Tarpon Springs Fundamental, Kings Highway, Blanton, Azalea, Bear Creek and Sexton, along with Lealman Innovation, which serves grades 6 through 12. The district says the changes would eliminate nearly 5,000 unused student seats and save $25 million a year, without laying off teachers.

The plan has been driven by a steep, sustained drop in local births. The county's chief operations officer, Jennifer Dull, told the board that Pinellas recorded about 10,000 births in 1990. That number has since fallen by more than half. Florida Health data show 9,541 live births in the county in 2006 and just 7,010 in 2024. District projections show the population of school-age children holding flat or shrinking through 2050.

What would close, and where students would go

Each closure comes with a specific rezoning plan:

• Sexton Elementary would close, sending its roughly 300 students to Woodlawn or Lynch elementaries.
• Blanton Elementary would close, with students moving to Rawlings or Westgate.
• Bear Creek Elementary would close, rezoning families to Gulfport Montessori and Fairmount Park.
• Azalea Elementary would relocate to the Azalea Middle campus and become a K-8 school with an expanded zone, starting in the 2027-28 school year.
• Tarpon Springs Fundamental would close and move onto the Tarpon Springs Middle campus, which would convert to a fundamental K-8.

Hendrick has said the financial case is straightforward even if the emotional one isn't. He has described the closures as necessary to keep the district competitive with charter and choice schools while balancing a budget strained by tens of thousands of empty seats districtwide, a number district officials have put above 45,000 when counting capacity across all grade levels.

Where the opposition is loudest

The sharpest resistance so far is coming from two very different corners of the county. At Sexton Elementary in St. Petersburg, the school's PTA president has said families were caught off guard by the recommendation, and a Change.org petition to keep the school open reached 411 signatures within three days of the plan's release.

At Tarpon Springs Middle, parents have objected not to a closure but to a conversion. Turning the campus into a K-8 fundamental school, they argue, would push their children out of what has been their neighborhood middle school and reshape the feeder pattern for families who never expected to be affected by an elementary school closure decision.

That sentiment, echoed by parents at several of the affected campuses this week, is shaping how the district is framing its remaining outreach.

What happens next

District officials are holding community meetings at every affected campus through early October. The school board takes formal public comment during a session in Largo on Sept. 22, followed by a board workshop on Oct. 6 to review that feedback. A final vote is scheduled for Oct. 13.

Board members have so far largely stood behind the broader plan, even as they brace for a heavier crowd at the Sept. 22 hearing than the district saw during the initial rollout. Nothing about boundaries, timelines or which campuses ultimately close is final until that vote.

Stay with Pinellas County Community Website for continuing coverage of the school closure debate, and follow us on Facebook for updates as the Sept. 22 hearing approaches. Share your thoughts on the proposal in our Community Forum, and check out more education stories and government and politics coverage affecting Pinellas County families.