Local

Seminole Co. parent creates music video in battle over school rezonings

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Upset parents in Seminole County are getting creative as they fight to keep their children in their neighborhood schools.

One Oviedo mother created a music video that's making the rounds on YouTube, and she hopes administrators are convinced by her catchy message.

Mother of two Tracey Smith is a children's-book author who wrote a catchy tune last weekend in the fight to stop the rezoning of schools in Seminole County.

Smith's 11-year-old edited the video on the kitchen computer, and the message is clear.

"We all just want to make sure our neighborhoods are kept together and not broken up," said Smith.

The district has received hundreds of emails but the music video is a first for officials there. Right now, there are four rezoning proposals on the table for the eastern part of the county.

About 1,500 students would be affected, and neighborhoods would be divided.

Keeping neighborhood school boundaries intact has been the most controversial issue of the rezoning process so far, and Smith said she made the video after she and others weren't convinced the school board was fully grasping their point at public hearings.

Leaders have received Smith's video, but no one has responded to Smith. Officials haven't even replied to Channel 9 when we asked them about it.

They'll vote on a final plan March 12.

"I want them to just, as they're deciding in the final plan, to really hear this," said Smith.