Portable county classrooms to disappear in three years

The Sarasota County Commission and the Sarasota County School Board met Wednesday, Aug. 29, for the first time since 2006 to begin talks about sharing resources and get an update on the area’s demographics.

Sarasota County Schools Director of Long Range Planning Ken Marsh “piggybacked” onto the morning agenda when he heard his colleague, Planning Analyst Micki Ryan, was preparing to brief commissioners o

n what the county’s demographics will look like in 2040. The statistics forecast even enrollment at public schools for the next five years, which prompted Marsh to pitch plans of phasing out portable classrooms.

“In my business, a long time ago, I heard the phrase ‘demography is destiny,’” said Sarasota County Administrator Randall Reid during the meeting.

The destiny of county schools has been, and will continue to be, influenced by the lure of charter schools, Marsh said.

Portable classrooms, also called relocatables, increased on Sarasota County campuses during the 1990s. The build-outs at Riverview High School and Booker High School, along with the plans for the new Sarasota High School, will increase student capacity, according to design plans.

Forecasts show that the ratio of school-age children in Sarasota County population will shrink 13% by 2040, Ryan explained during the presentation. The forward estimates for charter school enrollment have a shorter timeline but show a positive trend through 2015, Marsh illustrated. (See chart.)

The plan is for the district to begin phasing portable classrooms off campus during the next five years, so they are absent on high school and middle school campuses and are seen minimally on elementary school campuses by 2015. Portables are available for purchase after they are deemed surplus, according to the school district website.

The increasing charter school enrollment does have negative implications for the county’s public school system, explained School Board member Shirley Brown. Sarasota County is one of the few school districts required to split state funding for capital projects with charter schools. The move could squeeze the future budget of any building plans, but Brown praised Sarasota schools Chief Operating Officer Scott Lempe for jumping on the low interest rates and construction costs to tackle three recent school rebuilds.

“I think we were right to go ahead and invest,” Brown said.