As per the website, Gates Sr. High School will close (9th to 12 grade). The school was originally planned to be built on a site off Sunset Lane, next to Nye Park raising concerns about traffic and environmental impact. This is no longer going to occur.
The Lutz Citizen's Coalition which fought the proposed location has stated in an email "we are CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC, and are proceeding forward in all of our endeavors (Lawsuit, Public Records Requests, etc.). The letter is extremely vague about their future plans for the property on Sunset Lane."
There is an article in the Lutz Community News on the closing.
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Full text of letter from the Gates High School website:
"Please be aware that this announcement only impacts the families of 9th and 10th grade students. While grades 7 and 8 met at the same physical location, they are not part of the GATES Senior High School charter. Grades 7 and 8 will continue to be held at the Florida Ave campus of Learning Gate Community School.
Letter from GATES Chairman
Dear GATES High School Parents,
"It is with an extremely heavy heart that I am writing this email. When I accepted the opportunity to join the board of directors for GATES I felt that this was a difficult yet solvable problem. With the two schools working in cohesion together the resources and brain trust was available to help the schools grow, Learning Gates had been thriving for over 10 years and both schools had obtained high performing school status within Hillsborough County. I still feel as though we could have made it work but the obstacles that continued to be presented by the board of LGCS pushed us to far down the road. The failure to prepare for another property and lack of planning on behalf of the boards has put the schools in a position where there was not enough space to house the two schools without some modification. Having said that it is the determination that we are going to have to close the High School for the upcoming school year, which will cause the charter to be cancelled by Hillsborough County.
Many of you have hung in there while we tried to figure out a possible solution and I am very grateful for your faith and support. Like you I am now forced to analyze my children’s schooling options. I also realize some of you have waited past the choice deadline and now have to scramble to find a school for your high schoolers, many of you will have questions and concerns that I will have limited experience in answering. What I am going to work on this week are resources to aid you in the transition. I will follow up this email with details as to what resources we can provide to help answer questions and direct you to any available resources.
I wish all of you the best in the coming years and regret that we will not be able to fulfill the vision of the GATES High School.
Respectfully,
John Leaver
Chair"
