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Polk’s Swelling School District Swings Into Gear

Posted Aug 20, 2007 by Billy Townsend

Updated Aug 20, 2007 at 09:02 AM

I just dropped off my two teenagers at Lakeland High School. (If this were a video blog, you would see me smiling. It’s been a long summer.) All seemed to be working as well as could be expected on the first day of school.

Bruce Tonjes, the Polk district’s associate superintendent of school-based operations, reports a pair of first-day mishaps.

1) There have been power problems at Auburndale High School, with electricity out to about half the school. Tonjes said maintenance people are on it, and he expects the problem to be resolved quickly.

2) A truck ran into an overhang at Blake Elementary School in Lakeland. The school is “working around” the incident.

Beyond glitches, numbers are the real story of Polk’s first day. This district continues to grow rapidly, defying the trend seen in much of the Tampa Bay area and the rest of the state. Last year, the district added 3,000 students, equal to the net growth for the entire state.

This year, said Tonjes, the district is projecting 2,500 new students, while the state expects a net of only a few hundred more.

Tonjes said much of the district’s growth is concentrated in the booming northeastern portion of the county. But he said Lakeland-area schools are also seeing growth surges. At orientation last week, Lakeland High Principal Mark Thomas warned that his school is packed and asked for patience.

In any event, Polk’s school population increases relative to the state and Tampa Bay area strikes me as a terribly significant growth story that I’ll be checking into more. Stay tuned.

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