Pasco proposes closing Fox Hollow Elementary and remaking two west Pasco schools under 'Elevate 34668'

Pasco County school leaders want to close Fox Hollow Elementary and overhaul the two other elementary schools in one of the county's most troubled ZIP codes, a proposal Superintendent John Legg unveiled to staff and parents on Thursday, Oct. 15. The plan, which the district calls Elevate 34668, targets the economically struggling area near Port Richey where the three elementary schools are well below capacity and have posted years of weak state grades, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

School Board members are scheduled to discuss the proposal on Tuesday, Oct. 20. No vote has been taken, and several board members said they have questions before they can support it.

What the superintendent proposed

Elevate 34668 covers the part of west Pasco bounded by Ridge Road to the south, State Road 52 to the north, and the area west of Little Road to the Gulf of Mexico. Legg's proposal has three main parts:

• Close Fox Hollow Elementary and rezone its students to Gulf Highlands Elementary, Schrader Elementary or Chasco K-8, where some Fox Hollow children already go for the middle grades. Legg said Fox Hollow is the oldest of the ZIP code's schools and the one most in need of building improvements.
• Convert Schrader into a science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) program aligned with the curriculum at Bayonet Point Middle, which sits next door.
• Turn Gulf Highlands into a career exploration school renamed Highlands Exploratory Academy, with a curriculum that gives students more exposure to career and technical options alongside their core academics.

Legg told the Times the district wants to tackle academics and enrollment at the same time, and that it cannot keep doing what it has done at these schools for 14 years and expect a different result.

Why west Pasco is the target

The numbers behind the proposal are stark. Over the past 14 years, Fox Hollow, Gulf Highlands and Schrader have combined for six F grades, nine D grades and 24 C grades in Florida's school grading system, the Times reported. All three are also running well short of full.

The district's figures, as reported by the Times, show each school's use of its space:

Each school has lost roughly 30 to 50 students a year over a number of years, according to the district. That steady drain matters because Florida funds schools largely per student, while the cost of running a building does not shrink as quickly as its enrollment.

This is not the district's first attempt to lift west Pasco schools. Pasco took steps in 2019 to improve academic offerings on the county's west side, but those efforts sputtered, the Times reported, partly because the district was reluctant at the time to close schools that have since shut down anyway.

Empty buildings and a new home for an alternative school

The plan reaches beyond the three elementary schools. Legg also suggested moving the West Pasco Education Academy, which now operates at the old Hudson Elementary campus, to the former Calusa Elementary site on Orchid Lake Road.

The district would then issue an invitation to negotiate for leasing, buying or otherwise using its empty buildings. Legg described that as a non-binding process, with the goal of having a group of community members review the ideas and make recommendations.

Pasco has been shrinking its footprint for several years. Legg pointed to the closures of Hudson Elementary in 2020, Locke Elementary in 2023, Calusa Elementary in 2025 and Gulfside Elementary this year. He said those earlier steps toward more efficient operations are what allow the district to take a narrower, targeted approach this time.

How board members reacted

Board members said they do not want to close neighborhood schools, but they acknowledged the pressure on the district. Board member Jessica Wright told the Times the board has a financial responsibility to make sure every campus is used to its greatest potential and that it has to make difficult decisions. She also said she has several questions that need answers before she can support the proposal.

Board member Megan Harding, who taught at Fox Hollow before she was elected, said the community means a great deal to her and that she wants to be sure whatever the board decides is the right choice for those families.

A statewide squeeze on district schools

Pasco's proposal lands in the same week that the Pinellas County School Board approved closing six schools to deal with its own drop in enrollment, the Times reported. Pinellas Superintendent Kevin Hendrick had originally proposed closing seven, but Sexton Elementary was pulled from the list before the vote so the district could gather more community input, Bay News 9 reported. When the seven-school plan was announced in September, the district said it could save $25 million a year and cut nearly 5,000 unused seats, according to WUSF.

Across the state, Broward County is weighing as many as 10 more closures for the 2027-28 school year after closing seven schools over the past two years, WLRN reported in August. Broward opened this school year with about 11,358 fewer students than the year before, a loss the district put at roughly $100 million, and a final vote there is expected in December.

The forces behind these closures are similar. Enrollment is shrinking for a variety of reasons, including Florida's expanded school vouchers, and districts face the possibility that Schools of Hope charter operators will seek to share space on under-enrolled campuses. Lawmakers have also discussed requiring districts to hand unused property to charter schools, the Times reported. In Broward, board members have raised concerns that some closed campuses could be taken over by Schools of Hope operators, leaving the district with maintenance costs but without the state funding for those students.

What's next

The Pasco School Board will take up Elevate 34668 at its Tuesday, Oct. 20 discussion. Any closure and rezoning would require board approval, and the district has not said when a vote could come or when changes would take effect.

Families at Fox Hollow, Gulf Highlands and Schrader should expect more meetings as details emerge, including attendance boundaries for rezoned students and what the new STEAM and career programs would look like in practice.

Legg signaled that this will not be the last such proposal. If enrollment trends continue, he said, the district will probably be back in another year looking at another ZIP code.