This week, Hillsborough County Schools held several Gallery Walk meetings at local schools that the proposed boundary changes might affect. Some parents said these meetings aren’t helping, though, and they still have a lot of unanswered questions.

Ashley Foxworth considers herself pretty savvy when it comes to the Hillsborough County School District and the classroom. 

“Shifting students from one area that they spend their entire educational lives in to another area could be very detrimental to those students, so my concern is us focusing on the students and making sure they can thrive wherever they are,” said Foxworth.

That is what Foxworth focuses on now, advocating for students, and teachers, who may struggle. Now, she’s the one struggling to understand the district’s proposed boundary changes.  

As a former Hillsborough County teacher, who now serves as the District 5 Citizen Advisory Committee member for the school board, Ashley says if she can’t understand this information, she knows the parents she represents can’t either.

“This is an email that was sent to families for them to look at all this information, so my concern is a lot of our families don’t have the actual laptops, or any kind of technology, to actually be able to access this information. There’ are lots of links, there’s lots of jargon that families don’t understand and nobody is there to support them and walk them through this,” said Foxworth.

Foxworth says she was hopeful the district’s gallery walk throughs would clear things up, but after attending one at Middleton High School, she was left with questions unanswered. 

“This is a mouthful. We don’t even have time to digest this information. This isn’t enough time to process and really acquire a question to ask.”

With only a form to write a question, and map boards showing the scenarios, Foxworth is worried parents won’t have adequate, understandable information.

“I’m a former Hillsborough County educator and the proposed changes, and the way they’re presented is very confusing to me, so I can only imagine a parent who doesn’t have as much education as I have, or the educational knowledge to know the different steps of this process, they’re overwhelmed, and they can’t engage because of their lack of knowledge,” said Foxworth.

Now, Foxworth says she’ll do her best to breakdown the boundary changes to the parents she works with, but ultimately, she feels this is all too much, moving too fast.  

In response to parents’ concerns about the gallery walk style meetings, the district added a presentation and Q&A session with Superintendent Addison Davis at each meeting. 

The public can provide feedback online or by contacting their local board member. The board will decide on February 21.