UPDATE: Pinellas parents may have to drive their kids to school

Largo, Florida - Parents are passionate when it comes to their children.

When you're talking about young students and the school they attend, mothers and fathers tend to get even more protective, especially when there's talk of closing that campus.

"It's hard enough. Don't make them move," one mother pleaded, as she addressed Pinellas County School Board members on Tuesday.

Parents say their efforts were in vain. After hours of begging board members not to close six Pinellas County schools, board members voted unanimously to do just that.

Board Member Robin Wikle told us, "The kids are going to be fine. They're resilient. They're much more flexible than we are as parents."

Gulf Beaches, Kings Highway, North Ward, Palm Harbor, Rio Vista and Clearview Elementary Schools will close in the 2009-2010 school year.

Southside and Coachman Fundamental Middle Schools will combine with other schools.

For nearly four hours, one by one, parents asked board members to reconsider. The transportation issue was also discussed, since parents were now told they would be responsible for transporting elementary school children, who will no longer be in their zoned schools under the new assignment plan.

One woman told the board, "You're asking a bunch of North Ward parents to either reconsider because of where I live, you're asking me to home school my kids, because I will not put them in their zoned school."

Another put it simply, "This county has been run like a rudder-less ship for years."

Board members say it was not an easy decision. In fact, many of them began to cry when they announced the decision.

"Well, at one point, I was a little teary-eyed, knowing I had to do it, but didn't want the words to come out of my mouth because, when it came out of my mouth, it felt like it was final," Carol Cook told us.

Since the district will no longer bus the children to non-zoned elementary school, Pinellas County will now save $9 million dollars.

With the school closures, kids will now have to be re-zoned to attend the school closest to their home. If they're within two miles of their new school, they must walk. For anything that is further, the students will be bussed, with extra stops to accommodate more children.

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