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Pinellas County considers closing more schools
If approved, the changes will impact multiple institutions in St. Petersburg.
At the Pinellas County School Board’s Thursday workshop, superintendent Kevin Hendrick discussed plans to close several schools in the wake of enrollment decline.
The district proposed closing St. Petersburg’s Blanton Elementary, John M. Sexton Elementary and Bear Creek Elementary at the end of the 2026-27 academic year. Additionally, Tarpon Springs Fundamental Elementary, Clearwater’s Kings Highway Elementary and Lealman Innovation Academy may cease operations at the end of the 2026-27 academic year.
Pinellas County Schools also recommended transitioning St. Petersburg’s Azalea Elementary into a K-8 institution on the current Azalea Middle School campus. Azalea Middle School would be relocated to the Boca Ciega High School campus in the 2027-28 school year and renamed. Students would begin attending the K-8 institution in the 2028-29 academic year. Similarly, Tarpon Springs Middle School may close in order to create a new fundamental K-8 school on the property.
According to Pinellas County Schools’ website, fundamental institutions provide “a structured, traditional approach to education. These programs typically feature clear expectations, routines and accountability measures for both students and parents.”
Additionally, the district plans on converting Pinellas Park Elementary School into a fundamental K-5 school in the 2027-28 academic year.
These planned mergers and closures are a part of Pinellas County Schools’ Planning for Progress initiative. Additional recommendations addressed facility and school boundary zoning updates and the expansion of early learning opportunities.
“It’s very important to know that no one in the school district or on the school board wants to close a school,” said Hendrick at the Thursday meeting. “However, we do have an obligation to balance the budget and to be competitive in the ever changing landscape of school choice.”
Pinellas County Schools chief operations officer Jennifer Dull gave an overview of the information presented at community outreach meetings this summer. The goal of these gatherings was to seek input on potential closures, mergers and other changes.
The University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research expects that the school-age population in Pinellas County will decrease or plateau through 2050, she explained. However, the population of residents aged 80 or over will double by 2050.
“This is not a school closure plan,” Hendrick added. “This is not an exercise in saying which schools are the lowest in enrollment or which have the lowest utilization and just simply make a decision based on numbers alone. Certainly, that has a part in this process, but it is definitely not the only part and certainly not the leading part.”
He explained that recommendations are made based on multiple factors. These include future projections, program demands, facility age and the cost to upkeep different campuses.
Geography also plays a key role.
“We have many, many schools in close proximity to one another, whether they be neighborhood or magnet programs,” Hendrick said. “We also have the idea of public and private partnerships. If we are suggesting the closure or a consolidation of a school, what might we do with that property at some point?”
In February, the Pinellas County School Board voted to close Pinellas Park’s Cross Bayou Elementary and Gulfport’s Disston Academy at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. St. Petersburg’s Bay Point Elementary and Bay Point Middle will become a K-8 school on the middle school campus in the 2027-28 academic year.
The district plans to hold a series of site-based community meetings “for any school that has a specific recommendation,” Dull said. Additionally, she added that “any school recommended for closure will have a secondary community meeting.”
“There is no anticipated layoff of employees and no one will lose their job as a result of these recommendations,” Hendrick added. “As a very large organization, we have the benefit of having a lot of attrition over time.”
The School Board is scheduled to vote on the changes Oct. 13.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
September 12, 2026at5:27 pm
In the first closures South county schools were chosen. Now North county schools are chosen I believe that the decision makers are doing a really well thought out job. Their plan make sense. People left Pinellas County because it is very expensive to live here. People are not having children because it is too expensive. The school system will face these issues again next year. I have absolutely no idea who will live in All of these new apartments and townhomes. It will get very interesting. We have 2800 going up in my neighborhood and the ones built already are not full.