Pinellas County Schools wrapped up community input meetings Wednesday. Why? The district needs to decide which schools should close. More than 45,000 empty seats sit across campuses. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said birth rates keep dropping, and fewer kids show up for kindergarten each year, leaving buildings half-empty.
Three meetings happened at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Dunedin High School hosted one. Pinellas Park High School and St. Petersburg High School held the others. Parents can weigh in. So can staff and residents. They have until Saturday night to finish a 14-question survey online as part of the Planning for Progress initiative.
“The district will make recommendations to the board in late August that will take into consideration not only all the data and other things we are seeing in our community from enrollment trends to utilization and building trends, but also the input from our stakeholders to make sure those recommendations represent what we heard from our community,” said Chief Operations Officer Jennifer Dull, according to FOX 13 News…