Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 12-11-15 Edition

Feature
Consolidating Campuses Of Three West Tampa Schools Suggested
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
Tampa businessman, and West Tampa leader, Joe Robinson, made the sugges- tion more than a year ago that the campus of Dunbar Ele- mentary, Just Elementary, and Stewart Middle School be combined into a central cam- pus.
“My idea was the three schools be converted to Pre-K through 8th grade. The location can be where Stewart sits now on Spruce Street.
“After seeing what the Tampa Housing Authority has planned for the North Boule- vard Homes property, I just couldn’t see old outdated buildings like Dunbar and Stewart being a part of that.”
Robinson said his sug- gestion has caught the atten- tion of some School Board officials.
“I think it would be in the best interest of the community to have a consolidated cam- pus, and that would be a better fit for that area after the com- pletion of the redevelopment plan.”
JOE ROBINSON Vice-Chair, West Tampa CDC and Tampa Hillsborough NAACP
School Board Chair April Griffin said she doesn’t recall any discussions being held about consolidating those three schools.
“I do recall a plan to con- solidate the sports facilities at Blake, Stewart and Just, but nothing on the scale of consol- idating three schools.
“Stewart is a great school, and it would be a huge task to consolidate it with Just and Dunbar.”
Griffin said to her knowl- edge, no School Board mem-
APRIL GRIFFIN School Board Chair
ber has spoken to anyone with the redevelopment project for more than a year.
“The last discussions we had were that the schools aren’t going anywhere. They are sitting on some prime real estate and they are functioning well.
“We know there are plans to open the area up around Just and Stewart for redevel- opment projects to the north, but none of those plans have involved consolidating the schools.”
In 2014 when the develop- ment group out of St. Louis presented their redevelop- ment plan, they suggested a central campus consisting of Just, Stewart and Blake.
Griffin said Blake is one of the most expensive schools they’ve constructed, and there are no plans to change any- thing about that campus.
Council Chair Frank Reddick said he’s heard dis- cussions involving the Envi- sion Plan that suggested
FRANK REDDICK City Council Chair
Dunbar, Just and Stewart be relocated.
“The land the schools are sitting on is very valuable, es- pecially to developers. Most of them have already developed plans that have the schools lo- cated in a different area, or just gone all together.
“In meetings held at Blake and at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation Center, the public has seen different ren- derings of the redevelopment plans for West Tampa and North Boulevard Homes. In all of the renderings Stewart and Just were impacted.”
School District Superin- tendent Jeff Eakins said any discussion about the Mayor’s West River Project are just that; discussions.
“All of the schools in that
JEFF EAKINS School District Superintendent
area have to be a part of the discussion. Unless there’s a plan about serving kids, we aren’t interested in changing the schools. We want to make sure our students are served in a cost effective way.
“We’ll have to look at at- tendance numbers and other indicators before any discus- sions are made on those three schools.”
Supt. Eakins said they will have to have funds to con- solidate anything.
“At the end of the day, the area is going to be redevel- oped, and if there’s a scenario that comes up where we can do something different with the schools it will be based on our ability to continue to serve the children in that commu- nity.”
PAGE 2-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015