If increased teaching time, greater educational achievement and lower juvenile crime aren't significant public interests, then what are?

That is the question now tossed to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which must consider environmental permits for the Pasco School District to build a new high school in Wesley Chapel. The district plans middle and elementary schools on adjoining land, all of which are earmarked to open in August 2006.

But the high school construction will affect wildlife habitat significantly, according to the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, which voted Monday to recommend the school district seek another site. Barring that, it recommended construction with mitigation to be determined later, if the project is "determined to be of overriding public interest."

It should be an easy determination. Requiring a new site and delaying the construction start will have far-reaching consequences. Notably, it increases the likelihood of double sessions at already crowded Wesley Chapel and Sand Pine elementary schools, Pineview and Weightman middle schools, and Land O'Lakes High School.

As stated here previously, double sessions are more than an inconvenience. Such a calendar maximizes the use of school buildings but also increases maintenance expenses. It reduces teaching time by approximately one hour a day, or the equivalent of cutting a 180-day school year to 150, a dangerous decline considering time on task is considered a key component to academic achievement. Double sessions curtail extracurricular activities and mean some children will be left home unattended for several hours daily generating higher juvenile crime rates and other neighborhood and family problems.

The 20 acres in question are part of a larger parcel the district bought from the Porter family's Wiregrass Ranch. In all, the district has the option of buying five school sites from the Porters for $6.2-million, or about $38,000 an acre. The School Board authorized that agreement a year ago after a year of negotiation with the Porters.

If environmental regulators decline to issue construction permits for the high school, a significant public educational complex will be jeopardized. Besides the three public schools, the proposed site for the Wesley Chapel campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College falls within the same wildlife protection area.

Curiously, though, maps show a number of Meadow Pointe homes already within the same boundary. Surely private-sector development of single-family homes does not have a greater overriding public interest than relieving school crowding. To avoid a repeat of these late-in-the-game questions, school superintendent Heather Fiorentino would be wise to retain a land-use lawyer or comparable real estate professional to assist the district, which plans to build 16 new schools in four years. Circumventing pitfalls like the unexpected environmental scrutiny will be imperative to keeping that aggressive construction schedule.

County Commissioner Steve Simon, as a member of the regional planning council, championed the district's cause authoritatively. He helped persuade the board to allow the district to pursue mitigation, likely acquiring additional land as wildlife habitat. If the district is forced to do so, it should turn to a familiar landowner. In light of the $6-million purchase, and the questions being raised about the suitability of using the land as a school site, it is not unreasonable to ask the Porter family to donate more acres.