Pasco County schools vs Hillsborough County schools (Citrus Park, Lutz: middle school, to move)

[kdubose]

Hey all, looking for opinions on Pasco schools and Hillsborough schools (mainly Elementary and Middle and more of South Pasco and North Hillsborough-Lutz/Citrus Park/LOL/Trinity/Wesley Chapel)


Cliff Notes version:
Looking to move from Pinellas
want a better school environment for my soon to be 4th grader
want less diversity
want a school where parental involvement is encouraged
teachers that give a crap about their students would be great!

I know...high hopes, Im just starting to think that anything is going to be better then our schools in Pinellas.

[bentlebee]

It all comes down to personal experiences and how easy or difficult your child is.

I have great experiences with WC Elementary school and Weightman Middle School, but my child is very easy and is above average when it comes to learning.

[kdubose]

What's happening in his school now is that the teacher is spending all of her time with the children that are behavior problems or falling behind in learning. My son is well behaved and has become bored in class because the teacher cant/doesnt teach because shes "constantly paying attention to the 9 that are unruly or those that need extra attention" (her exact words in a conference). It really is lousy when those that are learning at grade level and arent behavior problems get forgotten about.

[bentlebee]

If your son can learn above average he might be able to get into gifted advance like my son did, which made a huge difference since most kids in the program are all on one line and there to get the most out of their education. The only negative thing was that only parents can take their kids out of the program so if a child is under performing due to lack of interest and behavior issues, the teachers have to let the child stay....but there were only 2 kids who fell into that category and the teachers were pretty strict so it wasn't causing much of an issue.

Weightman Middle school has an amazing staff for gifted advanced kids and I can promiss you they were not bored one single minute due to the amount of work and all are doing great in High School right now.

[vaughanwilliams]

If the state Legislature keeps tinkering with things, there won't be any public schools. I'm pretty sure that's their master plan, to get out of the school business.