School officials in Hillsborough say they don't have a choice. Rapid population growth, particularly in the northern suburbs, means that more and more students will need room, and new schools can't be built rapidly enough to keep up. There are some limits, though. Officials have balked at mega-schools of nearly 5,000 students, said Bill Person, who draws attendance boundaries for the school district. He said Hillsborough is reluctant to build anything larger than the planned high schools in Town 'N Country and New Tampa.
Some observers think even that's too big.
School Board member Candy Olson said she fears that students in large schools will get lost in the shuffle. Some students might need help, she said, but nobody will recognize it because the student body is simply too large. With prominent advocates such as Education Secretary Richard Riley, the small schools effort is getting a lot of attention lately. Still, the movement faces some challenges. Some people believe it's cheaper to build larger schools and that larger schools offer more academic and extra-curricular opportunities.