-- Packing Them In -- District Schools Suffering from Lack of Space

Fourth-graders at Sunrise Elementary School in Marion Oaks go through the paces in physical education class Monday morning as a another group of students waits to return to the classrooms.

OCALA -- The buses begin rolling into Sunrise Elementary by 8:30 p.m. sharp, a flood of backpack-toting children emerging in waves. But they must wait until 9 a.m. to enter their classrooms, hunkering down against the walls, because the teachers are busy directing traffic.

With 965 kids enrolled, Sunrise in Marion Oaks has 38 percent more students than it was designed to house. Fifth-graders are packed 36 to a classroom on average. Teachers and administrators are holding on until this fall, when 126 students will be transferred to the new Elementary School "S."

"Us and Harbour View Elementary battle back and forth to see who has the most in the county. It's a battle neither one wants to win," Sunrise Assistant Principal Rusty Corley said.

And it's a battle most of Marion County's 43 schools fight perennially. Marion County schools are overcrowded. Since 1993 school enrollment has grown from 30,900 to about 37,400.

SchoolMatch, a private Westerville, Ohio-based company that specializes in evaluating school systems, counted 472 portable classrooms at use in Marion County and urged an aggressive building plan to create more permanent facilities.

But the district is already in the middle of a five-year capital plan that features $94 million dedicated to building classroom space.

The biggest project is a $51 million combined middle school-high school. The school system is also building a new elementary school, and replacing Madison Street School for Basics Plus with a newer, larger school.

Susan Anahory's third-grade class at Sunrise Elementary School is held in a portable that is at its maximum.

If student growth continues at the rate predicted by the state, Marion County should need only 100 portable classrooms scattered throughout the various campuses when the schools are completed.

That does not include the eventual construction of a replacement facility for Forest High School, because it's not in the five-year work plan.

Overcrowding at Fort King Middle School forced Principal John Livingston to rethink the way his students learn. Instead of attending classes with the same students each day and being taught by a coordinated team of teachers, students at Fort King change classrooms and teachers as if they're in high school.

The team-teaching method is called the middle school model. The other method is called simply junior high school.

SchoolMatch said the Marion County school system should do what it can to preserve team teaching in the middle schools.

The report said key strategies to reduce the school district's alarming 17.52 percent drop-out rate also must take place in middle schools.

Some students at Fort King said they noticed the difference with the junior high schedule.

"You had a certain set of teachers for one group of students and you could only have classes with those students," said 14-year-old eighth-grader Matt Fabian "But now you can have classes with all the eighth-grade class and, in their case, all the seventh-grade class."

"I don't like it as much," said fellow eighth-grader Courtney Krehl, 13. "I like it better the way we had last year.

"The teachers last year they taught one grade. Now, we have some teachers teaching seventh and eighth and sixth grade."

At the same time, the students said they didn't feel they were learning less -- though maybe not as quickly.

"In some cases, some of the advanced students are put with some of the not-so-advanced students," said eighth-grader Amanda Herrera, 14. "So the teachers have to slow down for certain ones and advance for other ones, so it's harder to do it for the teacher and for the students."

Shaun Snyder, left, Gabby Fazier and Stephanie Perry make their way to class Monday at Sunrise Elementary School in Marion Oaks.

Livingston said if he had had one more teacher he could have kept the middle school system. And while his students may not notice the difference, it's tougher for teachers.

"In order to provide the best (education), you have to allow the teacher preparation time, time to get together," Livingston said.

Last year all teachers on a team had a common planning period and they could coordinate, say math and science curriculum, to teach skills at the same time.

"If they don't have time to get together on a weekly basis, it's hard to get that process going," Livingston said.

Superintendent of Schools John Smith said the decision to increase classroom size -- and also reduce the number of teachers -- was the lesser of two evils.

The worst-case scenario was running double school sessions each day.

"Double sessions under a middle school concept would be devastating," Smith said. "Double sessions from a high school block schedule standpoint would be devastating.

"It would be devastating in terms of cost, resources, impact on kids."

Portables are the norm at most Marion schools.

At Belleview Elementary, they use 11 of the temporary classrooms -- some more than 20 years old. That number will probably increase this fall when the school receives 93 of Harbour View's students in the reshuffle.

Construction of a much-delayed new permanent classroom wing for Belleview Elementary should begin this summer.

But teachers and administrators have reason to be skeptical, having heard promises about the construction for 15 years.

"It isn't just a one-school issue. It's a district issue. They have to look at the big picture," Belleview Principal Carol Ely said.

Harbour View also could get some relief next year under a proposed redistricting plan that would transfer 198 students. But the school district allocates teachers based on the number of students enrolled -- so class sizes aren't expected to get any smaller.

"The ideal would be about 24 students in the class," Corley said.

More students mean more distractions, so instructors spend more time on classroom management. "The teacher has to spend time correcting that behavior instead of teaching the class.

The county's five high schools are similarly packed. Even the newest high school, five-year-old Belleview High, already has 33 portables on campus.

They started out in 1994 with 10 and have added each year. Originally intended for 1,200 students, Belleview High has an enrollment of nearly 2,000.

"The bottom line is we're a school with 2,000 students, and we don't have anyplace other than the football stadium where they can all gather at one time. We don't have a stage for our performing arts academy, which is about one-fourth of our students," Principal Jim Yancey said.

He said the amount of money the state provides for capital improvements is insufficient. Only a very affluent county with a high tax base can make up the difference.

"It's just a fact of life in the state of Florida that you're going to have portables. The state funding is not there for these capital projects to (handle) growth," Yancey said. "As soon as you lay the first brick, it's already going to be overcrowded."