TAMPA, Fla. — Thousands of students in Hillsborough County found out Tuesday if they'll have to switch schools in the 2024-2025 school year.

Board members, by a 4-3 vote, signed off on proposed boundary changes that the district says are meant to save money and help with over- and under-enrollment. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Hillsborough School Board voted 4-3 to approve proposed boundary changes Tuesday

  • In an e-mail to parents, the district said proposed changes would impact up to 15,000 students

  • Changes will be implemented in the 2024-2025 school year

  • The vote comes after months of meetings meant to get public input

Board members Nadia Combs, Lynn Gray, Patti Rendon, and Stacy Hahn voted in favor of the proposal while Henry Washington, Jessica Vaughn and Karen Perez voted against it. 

Superintendent Addison Davis pushed for the board to approve the plan. The plan developed by Davis would fully repurpose six schools, partially repurpose three, and change boundaries for 103 schools.

The district says right now, there are 23 schools that are over- or under-utilized.

This plan woukd cut that down to two. It’s also expected to save the district more than $13 million a year.

Board members said it was a tough decision because fifteen thousand students are expected to be impacted. But ultimately, they said they had to look at the district’s financial future.

Sixth grader Liam Smith says he came out to thank the superintendent for this plan.

Earlier proposed scenarios would’ve meant going to Pierce Middle School instead of Coleman.

“One of the worst decisions, it would’ve been, for my life. My entire thing is that at Coleman, I’m a coder and engineer. Coding is just the best in that school specifically, and I want to go right into coding," Smith said.

"The results are positive for our neighborhoods," said parent Guilherme Barati. "I know not everyone got the results they were expecting. There were schools closing, there were other neighborhoods being redistricted."

Barati was one of the parents from the North Bon Air and Westshore Palms neighborhoods who gathered for regular meetings earlier this year to keep each other informed on the rezoning process - and to speak out against two of the three originally proposed scenarios.

Barati said his daughter is in first grade at Grady Elementary, and he was concerned about what scenarios 2 and 3 would mean for her.

"When we moved into the area, we did so for middle school, specifically," he said. 

According to the district, about 15,000 students would be impacted by the plan, although it noted in an e-mail to parents the actual number would likely be lower. The district e-mail said it would cut annual expenditures by more than $13 million and reduce the number of very over- and under-utilized schools from 23 to two.