Hours after Broward County School Board members decided to move forward on a proposal to change attendance boundaries at Pioneer Middle School in Cooper City, residents and civic leaders decided to fight back.

``There are two things you don't do to us in Cooper City. You don't mess with our children and you don't take them out of neighborhood schools,'' said Felicia Anderson, chairman of the Cooper City Education Advisory Board.

On Tuesday, the crowd of nearly 400 parents, business owners and residents who attended an emergency forum at Cooper City High School responded to Anderson's opening remarks with a standing ovation.

The meeting was called by local education activists and residents after word spread about a change that would likely keep scores of Broward schoolchildren from attending overcrowded Pioneer Middle next year by busing them out of the city.

In one option, 173 incoming sixth- and seventh-graders would be sent to Pines Middle School. The second option sends the same number of children to Hollywood's Driftwood Middle.

Earlier in the evening, Cooper City's commission had unanimously passed an emergency resolution to oppose the proposals.

``We are united and we will rally against this together,'' said Mayor Debby Eisinger, who attended the forum after the City Commission meeting.

The situation stems from decisions made in the past when enrollment burgeoned, the economy was rich and budgets were fat.

In 2000, Florida residents voted for mandatory class-size reductions.

In 2005, the state Legislature mandated that cities, counties and schools work together on concurrency of growth, which means that new communities could not be developed unless schools were equipped to take on new students, existing schools could be expanded to hold more students or new schools could be built.

The law further requires schools to operate at no more than 110 percent capacity -- that number does not include portable classrooms -- by the school year 2011-12.

However, Broward's severe budget crunch has led to the cancellation of school expansions and new school construction, leaving schools bursting at the seams in the west and 35,000 empty desks projected in the east and north over the next three years.

School boundary changes ordinarily occur yearly to balance student populations or alleviate overcrowding when new schools open and school expansions take place.

This time, the boundary changes will attempt to meet state concurrency regulations and get rid of portable classrooms.

Parents argue that Pioneer Middle, with 300 children over capacity, is not overcrowded when the school's portable classrooms are factored in.

``This is not about overcrowding here -- it's about portables. And this is not a Cooper City issue -- it's a county problem,'' said Stacey Hogelund, co-chairman of Cooper City High School's School Advisory Council.

Education advocate and former Cooper City commissioner Linda Ferrara warned that Pioneer Middle's boundary change ``is the beginning of a domino effect.''

``Pines Middle children will then be sent to Apollo Middle in Hollywood. Then the next year we'll have Weston kids on the move east from Falcon Cove and Tequesta Trace Middle. . . . We have to find a solution,'' Ferrara said.

Other middle schools expected to shift students east and north for 2011-12 are Glades Middle in Miramar, Falcon Cove in Davie, Silver Trail in Pembroke Pines and Westpine in Sunrise.

Everglades High in Miramar, Cypress Bay High in Weston and Flanagan High in Pembroke Pines are slated to go through the boundary change process next year.

Hundreds are expected to wear red in protest against the changes to upcoming public boundary meetings.

``Laws can be amended. It happens every day. When the School Board or state legislators tell you there is nothing to be done, don't believe them,'' said Neal DeJesus, a Cooper City commissioner.

District 6 School Board member Phyllis Hope, who attended the meeting, said the county is faced with extraordinary budget, building and enrollment concerns.

But Hope commended the efforts of parents, commissioners and other local residents.

``What you are doing tonight is organizing, and that is what you need to do to be heard,'' Hope said.

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