Pinellas County (Florida) district mulls options for addressing enrollment decline

Officials in the Pinellas County (Florida) district are asking the public for ideas on how to deal with an enrollment decline that has left the school district with about 45,000 more seats than students.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that the district has some schools filled beyond their capacity and others with enrollments at or below 50%.

The district could close or merge schools, find different uses for some buildings or join forces with partners that make sense, chief operating officer Jennifer Dull said.

Keeping campuses half filled has become more complicated because of a new state law that allows certain charter schools to claim unused space in public schools for their own operations.

At least one charter operator has indicated its interest in entering more than a dozen Pinellas schools, and another round of requests are expected this week as State Board of Education rules take effect.