Demolishing buildings, selling off administrative headquarters, and expanding four elementary schools to K-8 are part of the Sarasota school district’s plan to prevent charter schools from moving in, the superintendent said Tuesday.
The plan must be voted on by Friday, and could still change, Superintendent Terry Connor said during a school board workshop. He also admitted it’s not certain to prevent future attempts by charter schools to take up public school space on taxpayers’ dime.
Florida legislators this year expanded the scope of a 2017 law that established a pathway for Schools of Hope.
Now the program is not only aimed at low-performing schools or impoverished areas, but any public school with available space.
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Connor said the school district currently has 5,600 “under-utilized seats.” County-wide, the district enrolls about 45,000 students. The plan he presented improves the capacity percentage at many schools, but still leaves about 2,200 open seats, according to school board member Tom Edwards.
“Are we still vulnerable to Schools of Hope coming in and carving in, or dropping into 100 here, or 150 over there? Does that still happen?” Edwards asked.
“That's not an easy question to answer, but I mean, it’s a possibility,” Connor said. “Honestly, this is such an unprecedented new thing, it's hard to tell. But I think where we're at and where we've landed makes it very difficult to make that a proposition that's valuable for School of Hope to set up.”
Edwards also asked Connor how much the plan would cost overall. Connor said he would “definitely have that for you by Friday, of what next year's projections would look like. But I don't think it's going to be a significant barrier for us.”
Other school board members reacted positively to the ideas in the plan during the meeting.
“I don't diminish the intensity of what's been taking place in this month. You guys were clearly up for the challenge, because I think this end product is top-notch,” said school board member Bridget Ziegler.
School board member Liz Barker said the district is leading the state in efforts to repurpose buildings and use them responsibly.
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“When I speak with folks in the legislature,” Barker added, “I am continuing to hear that this concept of private companies coming in to use public space remains very much on the table. And so I think while we are being very proactive, we cannot take our eyes off the very real challenges we will continue to face every legislative session.”
“This is no longer about enhancing student outcomes. This is no longer about improving academic outcomes. This is no longer about providing hope. This is about dollars and cents,” Barker said.
The school board’s lawyer, Patrick Duggan, said he “would be prepared to respond within the confines of the rule as aggressively as the board wants us to,” to any future letters from Schools of Hope. The state has authorized six such operators, and more notices are expected to arrive beginning November 11.
“We have a lot of flexibility," Connor said. "If some circumstance dictates that we change our game plan, we have the ability to take that and update that if required,” Connor said.
Specifics
A PowerPoint of the plan Connor presented is available on this webpage, under “Agenda Packet.”
Four elementary schools would become K-8 in the next few years, including Alta Vista, Brentwood, Gulf Gate and Wilkinson Elementary.
At Venice Middle, some student spaces would be made into early learning offices. At Heron Creek Middle, a building would be converted to a childcare facility, and at McIntosh Middle, a building that houses 6th-grade students would be converted to facility support services.
Sarasota Middle was not included in the PowerPoint presentation.
The district did not respond to a request for comment about how the expansion of four elementary schools would be expected to affect other existing middle schools, or for an explanation of other elements mentioned in the presentation, such as “micro-learning communities” at McIntosh Middle and “Young Marines” at Venice Middle.
Two schools could see one of their buildings demolished, including Fruitville Elementary’s Building 5, and Building Two at Alta Vista Elementary, “which is a very, very old building, and it is not even currently being utilized,” Connor said.
The district is considering selling its administrative building at the Landings and moving those offices to unused spaces at schools.
No changes are planned for Oak Park, which was one of three schools to get a notice last month from Mater Academy that it intends to move in. Oak Park is for students with disabilities, has an exceptional student education designation (ESE), and should be off the table, Connor said.
“And so we believe, by making sure that that designation is intact… that this should be materially impractical for any co-location to occur at a school that is servicing students with intense needs and with all the therapeutic services that are in the space needed to do that,” Connor said.
Other elements of the plan were presented at prior community meetings, including adding a Junior Achievement Biztown at Emma E. Booker Elementary and a JA Finance Park at Booker Middle.
