Pinellas Schools Proposes Closing 7 Campuses in Largest Consolidation Yet

Pinellas County Schools wants to close seven campuses and reshape attendance zones or programs at dozens more, under a sweeping plan Superintendent Kevin Hendrick presented to the School Board on Sept. 10. The proposal touches 28 schools in all, more than four times the scope of last year's round of closures, and will decide where thousands of Pinellas families send their kids next fall.

The board is scheduled to vote Oct. 13. Until then, the district will hold community meetings at the affected schools and a public workshop to take questions before members cast a final vote.

The schools recommended for closure

Hendrick is proposing these seven schools close at the end of the current school year:

• Tarpon Springs Fundamental
• Lealman Innovation
• Kings Highway Elementary
• Blanton Elementary
• Bear Creek Elementary
• Sexton Elementary
• Azalea Elementary, which would move onto the Azalea Middle School campus for the 2028-29 school year and become a K-8 school

The plan also calls for two new K-8 schools and changes to boundaries or academic programs at several other campuses, though the district has not finalized every detail of those rezonings.

Why the district is doing this now

Pinellas, like most Tampa Bay districts, is watching its enrollment shrink year after year. Kindergarten enrollment has fallen from 87% of eligible children in the 2015-16 school year to 68% this year, according to district figures presented earlier this year. Birth rates are down, housing costs are pushing families out, and the county's senior population is growing while its school-age population is not expected to grow through 2050.

That math is why Hendrick launched Planning for Progress, the district's ongoing effort to consolidate underused buildings rather than keep paying to heat, staff and repair schools running well below capacity. The first round, approved in February, closed just two schools, Cross Bayou Elementary and Disston Academy, while combining Bay Point Elementary and Bay Point Middle into a K-8 school and expanding Oldsmar Elementary into K-8. District officials said that round would save close to $8 million a year and defer $7 million in maintenance costs.

This second round is far bigger. Hendrick said the district deliberately moved up the timeline so families have more runway to weigh their options.

Last year's recommendations landed in the second half of the school year, after many school-choice application windows had already closed. This time, families will know where they stand before those deadlines hit.

What happens between now and the vote

District officials say no layoffs are expected as a result of the plan. The head of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association said she welcomes that commitment but expects the scale of the changes to still create stress for staff, and she is asking the district to make any transitions as smooth as possible.

Not every parent is sold on the K-8 concept driving several of the moves. One Azalea Elementary parent whose daughter is nonverbal and in a special needs program said she is uneasy about putting elementary students on the same campus as middle schoolers, saying she feels more comfortable with her daughter around kids closer to her own age.

School Board Chair Caprice Edmond is urging families to review the recommendations online and submit questions before the vote, so board members and district staff can address concerns ahead of Oct. 13.

What's still ahead

The district plans several more weeks of public meetings at the schools named in the plan before the board takes it up. Families with children in any of the seven schools slated for closure, or at campuses facing boundary or program changes, can find the full list of recommendations and submit comments through the district's Planning for Progress page. The Oct. 13 board meeting is expected to draw a large crowd, and it is the last stop before any of these changes become official for the 2027-28 school year and beyond.

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