School Board of Manatee County approves funding for capital projects

The School Board of Manatee County unanimously approved a resolution Oct. 27 allowing the School District of Manatee County to borrow up to $100 million dollars to accelerate capital projects. 

With the new funding, the district plans to start renovations at Carlos E. Haile Middle School and Tara and Blackburn elementary schools as well as a building replacement at Southeast High School, grandstand replacements at Manatee High School and security improvements at various schools within the district. 

"We had an extensive series of workshops on this issue," said Scott Hopes, a member of the school board. "We had an engineering study that identified the needs of the district for numerous renovations and additions and capital projects. As we discussed, with the cost of money as low as it is and the inflation costs of moving these projects out into the five, six, seven year period, this is the right thing to do for the district."