New School 'Bursting At Seams'

Watch out, parents - district officials are starting to verify addresses.

Enrollment at the Hernando County School District's newest school is "bursting at the seams," administrators say, with more than 2,000 students registered for Explorer K-8 in Spring Hill.

The building's maximum capacity was originally set at 2,100 students, but that number has since been reduced, due to smaller required class numbers in the school's gifted and ESE classes.

The actual number of kindergarten through 12th-graders who showed up at school as of Thursday was 1,948, or 189 more than initially projected.

This stands in sharp contrast to other district schools where enrollment was less than expected. At Deltona Elementary School, 807 students showed up for school, or 157 less than the expected.

The first 10 days of school are considered the most important for the district, attendance-wise. That's because those are the days each child is counted for state enrollment numbers, which determines how much the district will receive in per-student funding.

They are also the numbers that district officials will look at when determining if teachers need to be transferred between schools to create more or fewer classes at specific schools.

Explorer's principal, Dominick Ferello, predicted that teachers may be shifted to Explorer to create at least one additional kindergarten class. The school's kindergarten classes currently boast 38 to 40 students per classroom, and its fifth-grade classes are large, as well, he said.

"We're overcrowded now," he said. "We're bursting at the seams."

Initially, the district planned for 1,500 students at Explorer, but when initial enrollment numbers started pouring in, officials moved extra surplus furniture to the school at the last minute.

Many parents waiting until the first three days of school to register their children for class, causing the school's enrollment numbers to jump even higher than expected.

Ferello said school officials have started verifying addresses and documents to make sure parents aren't trying to use a false address to enroll their child into a school that is outside their home's zone.

"They've tried to slip a few things past us already," he said.

The only other schools in the district that boasted enrollment increases were Brooksville and Suncoast Elementary Schools, J.D. Floyd K-8, Powell Middle School and Nature Coast Technical High School. The rest decreased.

Overall, 22,123 students have been counted at Hernando County Schools, or 709 less than projected.

However, officials said the numbers are expected to increase as families return to town from vacation or register at their appropriately-zoned school.