Schools plan keeps Wilkinson open, creates new K-8 campuses

A broad-stroke sketch unveiled weeks ago to counter Schools of Hope takeovers in Sarasota County is now a detailed portrait of proposals to repurpose, relocate and demolish in the pursuit of reduced campus capacity and new programming to attract students lost to alternative education options.

Among the biggest changes up for approval at a special meeting of the Sarasota County School Board on Friday: the establishment of leased child-care facilities on two campuses; a pair of Junior Achievement learning centers for elementary and middle-school students and the conversion of four elementary schools into K-8 variations. One of those four elementary schools, Wilkinson was penciled in to close under Superintendent Terry Connor’s original proposal.

In a presentation to school board members Tuesday, Connor said not only is the “future-focused” strategic plan a way to eliminate about 3,400 of 5,600-plus excess capacity-seats that might be available for occupation by Schools of Hope-connected charter operators, but also a means to create programming to compete with private, charter and home schools.

“We’ve got to get these families back from the charters and some of the private schools, and this is such a golden opportunity for our district to really shine,’’ said School Board Chair Robyn Marinelli.

Connor rolled out an initial glimpse of the plan in September that focused at first on closing Wilkinson and moving the school district’s central offices to its repurposed campus. That drew immediate fire from Wilkinson parents, who packed a follow-up community meeting to suggest alternatives, including K-8 conversion. The option to disperse district operations remains an option.

Sarasota County Schools faces several threats, mainly but not only from the state’s Schools of Hope program, which allows a selection of certified for-profit charter-school operators to move into unused areas of under-capacity schools without cost. 

Also, demographics of the city of Sarasota and its surroundings are getting older, according to U.S. Census figures, with the largest slowdown coming in the 35 to 49 age group. The state’s private-school voucher program has also siphoned off public school students statewide, as have home-school options and more conventional charter options.

Connor made clear that though the timeline of his proposals was compressed by Schools of Hope urgency, the recommendations would make sense regardless of the circumstances. “That’s why I refer to them as ‘future-focused,''' he said.

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By hearing the recommendations Tuesday, voting on them Friday and then immediately submitting them to state education regulators in Tallahassee, the school district aims to beat by four days a window that opens Nov. 11, after which Schools of Hope operators could legally begin to submit space requests.

Mater Academy of Hialeah Gardens, a $314.38 million company in 2024 fiscal year, had already sought space at three Sarasota County campuses, requests that the school district said arrived before the application window legally opened.

School board members agreed broadly with the superintendent’s proposals but urged caution across the rapid timeline and asked to hear “ballpark’’ financials on staffing and building reconfigurations at Friday’s meeting. Connor promised he would comply, adding a lot of the changes would not require significant spending.

“A lot of people work best under pressure, I’m one of those people, as well,’’ School board member Bridget Ziegler said. “And sometimes that outcome, because procrastination is a reality ... when you give them a long runway, they all end up waiting until the last minute anyway. I don’t diminish the intensity of what has taken place.’’

Conversion of four elementary schools to K-8 not only solves a capacity issue, but Connor said is often a preferred means of making the move from a smaller early-years school to larger middle-school experience. It’s also a point at which families often consider private or charter options, he said.

“Middle school can be scary, and so keeping them at the elementary campuses where they start at pre-K or kindergarten and having the duration of them to be there maybe nine years really is a great opportunity to keep that close-knit experience,’’ Connor said. 

Physical conversions of elementary schools to accommodate older students, he added, generally cost less than adding younger children to middle school campuses. The new grades would phase in with sixth grade next school year, concluding in 2028-29 with the addition of eighth grade. Brentwood Elementary could add a classical-arts emphasis along the way to becoming a K-8.

At Emma Booker Elementary and Booker Middle, Connor envisions the creation with Junior Achievement of two sites that students from around the region could visit, providing simulated towns and workplaces to learn real-world skills.

Funded by philanthropy, these “JA Discovery Centers” would be named Biz Town for younger students on the elementary campus and JA Finance Park on the middle school campus.

“I get a lot of feedback: ‘When do we teach students financial literacy, when do we teach them how to do their taxes,’ and all of those critical skills just to exist as a citizen,’’ Connor said. “This is a real-world opportunity for that.’’