A few hundred parents and students packed the cafeteria at Brookside Middle School in Sarasota on Monday night to hear about the district's plan to protect its public schools after dozens of schools in the region were put on notice that a charter school chain intends to move in.
But anger repeatedly spilled over, and the sound of shouting and booing filled the auditorium as Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Terry Connor tried to speak.
"We don't want our schools to be co-located and occupied by a hope charter school," Connor said, referring to notices received this month at Booker Elementary, Brookside Middle and Oak Park schools.
The letters say Miami-based Mater Academy, one of six companies allowed by the state to operate Schools of Hope, intends to take up available space in their buildings starting in August 2027.
That's allowed in Florida because the Legislature expanded the definition of Schools of Hope. It used to be for low-performing schools in impoverished areas. Now, any school that has low enrollment must allow a charter school to take up its extra space.
Connor spoke as slides showed that overall the district's enrollment is way down and has "5,600 under-utilized seats."
"This is not in response only to Schools of Hope," said Connor. "This has been a three-year progression of a plan that we're going to be able to move to Nov. 11 so that we can secure and protect ourselves from being occupied," Connor said.
The idea presented Monday night is to move Suncoast Polytechnical High, which has 540 students, to Brookside Middle, which is at 45% capacity.
The result would be a new, larger Suncoast Polytechnical High School and Secondary School, serving grades 6 through 12, Connor said.
As Connor described how Suncoast Poly would move to Brookside, the crowd began shouting, "No!"
"I know that it looks as if Suncoast is losing. They are gaining the ability to have more students, have more facilities," Connor said.
Members of the audience spoke during a Q&A about their love of Suncoast Poly as a nontraditional high school, capped at 600 enrollment, with unique offerings in robotics, animation, nursing and automotive.
One person asked how the district plans to pay for moving all those expensive labs and equipment to a new space.
"In terms of those resources, I have no doubt, with the grants that we're applying for right now related to STEM, that we'll be able to do that," Connor said.
Some in the audience laughed and shook their heads.
Julia Casimir's son Andre attended Brookside Middle and now goes to Suncoast Poly.
"Brookside has issues," she said.
Many students come from low-income families, but not enough to qualify for a boost in federal funding from Title I aid, Casimir said. In her experience, it doesn't make sense to suddenly inject the school with a lot of money while the district is struggling financially due to low enrollment.
"They expect to go, like, miles and leaps and bounds? It's impossible," she said.
The plan presented is not solving the problem at Brookside but creating problems for Suncoast Poly, she added.
Andre studies business at Suncoast Poly, which shares space with Suncoast Technical College. Many high school students are dual enrolled, so the idea of moving away seems wrong, he said.
"I just want the best for the schools, right? I think that Polytech has a good campus. And it's not going to work out if they move here because they won't have the college anymore," he said.
U.S. News and World Report ranks Suncoast Poly as the No. 2 high school in Sarasota County, after Pine View, and No. 31 in Florida.
Some students and parents never expected Suncoast Poly to get wrapped up in the Schools of Hope situation.
"I've been tracking it since the beginning. It's an atrocious situation, but this also is an atrocious solution," said Alex Dougherty, a Suncoast Poly senior who went to Brookside Middle for eighth grade.
Not everyone was against the superintendent's ideas.
"He's trying to solve these complex issues in a fast way to prevent a worse outcome," said Jen Stutler, who has twin daughters at Suncoast Poly.
"I'm hoping that all the parents and students also contact their representatives because that's really where our energy needs to go, is to the state representatives who voted for these laws and who are silent right now."
Monday's meeting was only to address Brookside Middle. A similar meeting was planned for Tuesday evening at Booker Middle. Another is schedule for Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Wilkinson Elementary.
A district spokesman said details of the entire plan will be posted online Friday on the district website in the InForm Community Clarity section.
