We, the parents, families, neighbors, alumni, and community members of Tarpon Springs, are asking the Pinellas County School Board to pause the proposed relocation of Sunset Hills Elementary students and preserve Sunset Hills as the neighborhood school serving its current community unless and until families receive meaningful notice, data, public discussion, and an opportunity to participate in determining its future.

Sunset Hills Elementary is not simply a building.

It is a community our children have grown up in.

Some of our children have walked through these doors since Pre-K. They know these classrooms. They know their teachers and staff. Their siblings have attended here. Families have spent years volunteering, attending school events, supporting teachers, building friendships, and creating the culture that makes Sunset Hills what it is.

And now, days before a scheduled School Board vote, our families are facing a dramatically different future.

Under the amended Planning for Progress proposal, Sunset Hills Elementary students would be relocated to the current Tarpon Springs Middle School campus to create a traditional K–8 school, while Tarpon Springs Fundamental would expand into a K–8 program on the current Sunset Hills campus.

We are asking one very simple question: Why must Sunset Hills children lose their school in order to solve another school's facility problem?

We respect and support the families of Tarpon Springs Fundamental and their right to advocate for their children and school community.

But protecting one school community should not require displacing another.

Sunset Hills families deserve the same opportunity to advocate for our children.

This is especially concerning because Sunset Hills was not included in the original September recommendation affecting the Tarpon Springs schools. Families were discussing the future of Tarpon Springs Fundamental and Tarpon Springs Middle while Sunset Hills families had every reason to believe their elementary school would remain their elementary school.

Now our children are being asked to leave the campus they know and move into a middle-school facility as part of a newly configured K–8 school.

A change this significant deserves more than a few days of notice before a final vote.

Before approving this proposal, Sunset Hills families deserve clear answers.

We want the district to publicly explain:

• Why Sunset Hills was selected to give up its existing campus.

• What alternatives were evaluated that would allow Sunset Hills students to remain at Sunset Hills.

• What educational benefit Sunset Hills elementary students receive by being relocated to the current middle-school campus.

• How elementary and middle-school students will be safely and appropriately separated.

• How arrival, dismissal, transportation, playground/recess, cafeteria use, security, ESE services, class sizes, staffing, and age-appropriate facilities will operate in the proposed K–8 configuration.

• What enrollment, capacity, financial, facility, and academic data support this specific plan.

• Why Sunset Hills families were not provided the same amount of time and opportunity for community engagement regarding this new proposal.

We understand that Pinellas County Schools faces difficult decisions involving declining enrollment and underutilized facilities.

We are not asking the district to ignore those realities.

We are asking the district not to make Sunset Hills children bear the consequences of a solution they had virtually no opportunity to evaluate or influence.

Our children are not numbers on a capacity spreadsheet.

Their school community matters.

Their stability matters.

Their relationships with teachers and staff matter.

And the voices of their families matter.

OUR REQUEST
We respectfully ask the Pinellas County School Board to pause the portion of the Planning for Progress proposal that would relocate Sunset Hills Elementary students from their existing campus.

Before any final decision is made, we ask the Board to:

Hold a dedicated public community meeting for Sunset Hills families regarding this specific amended proposal.
Release the complete data and analysis supporting the relocation of Sunset Hills.
Present and publicly evaluate reasonable alternatives.
Allow Sunset Hills parents, teachers, staff, and community members meaningful time to provide feedback.
Preserve Sunset Hills Elementary on its existing campus while that process takes place.
Tarpon Springs can find a solution that serves the entire community without treating one group of children as the solution to another school's problem.

Keep Sunset Hills at Sunset Hills.

Please sign this petition and share it with Sunset Hills families, Tarpon Springs residents, alumni, local businesses, and everyone who believes families deserve a meaningful voice in decisions that reshape their children's education.