Sarasota County Schools News

NORTH PORT — Sarasota County School Board members, district staff, parents and students celebrated the groundbreaking of a new elementary school and cut the ribbon to dedicate Woodland Middle School, Thursday morning, July 31. The future elementary site and the new middle school are in North Port.

School Board Chairwoman Kathy Kleinlein and Superintendent of Schools Lori White spoke at both events. Toledo Blade Elementary School Principal Chris Renouf, a Toledo Blade parent and a student who will be entering second grade shared their thoughts about the new school.

Elementary I, scheduled to open in August 2009, is based on the plan used to construct Lamarque Elementary in North Port, with some variations. It is also similar to Cranberry (North Port) and Tatum Ridge (Sarasota) elementary schools. The 124,000-square-foot, 970-student-station school was designed by BRPH Architects/Engineers (architects of Lamarque, Cranberry and Tatum Ridge schools) and will be built on 35 acres by Jon F. Swift General Contractors.

The location is near the future Atwater Community Park, which will include youth ball fields. The school district is working closely with Sarasota County Emergency Management to build an enhanced hurricane shelter, designed to withstand wind speeds of 180 miles per hour instead of the standard 130 mph, as part of the school.

Speakers at the Woodland Middle School ribbon cutting ceremony included Principal Kristine Lawrence and three students who will be in grades six through eight at Woodland. The school will open when the district 2008-09 school year begins, Monday, Aug. 18. For this school year only, the school will include fifth grade, reducing the enrollment at Toledo Blade Elementary by about 200 students.

Woodland Middle School is 215,000 square feet and is located on a 45-acre site. Ground was broken in February 2007. There are 1,550 student stations. The school was designed by Seibert Architects and built by Kraft Construction Company.

Both Elementary I and Woodland Middle incorporate “green” features into their plans and construction techniques and materials, including the use of regional building supplies; recycled-content and low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) materials; and energy-efficient heating and air conditioning, water use, storm water management and landscaping. The district has applied for LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) from the U.S. Green Building Council for Woodland Middle and plans to seek LEED certification for Elementary I.

The 2008 school grade report released July 8 by the Florida Department of Education showed the Sarasota County Schools continuing to improve their overall performance. The district maintained its status as an A district. Eighty-three percent of regular district schools received A’s compared with 78 percent last year.

Ninety-five percent of the district’s elementary schools received A’s. Two of its five comprehensive high schools earned A’s and four high schools improved one letter grade.

Only two schools received lower grades this year than they had last year. No school received a D or an F.

The FDOE report also contains the results of how many schools achieved Adequate Yearly Progress under the terms of the federal No Child Left Behind law.To make AYP, a specified percentage of students in the entire school and in several individual subgroups must demonstrate proficiency in reading and math.

The percentage of students who must test at the proficiency level for a school to make AYP increased this year from 51 percent to 58 percent in reading and from 56 percent to 62 percent in mathematics.

Sarasota County Schools met 79 percent of the federal criteria for AYP, which was a two percent improvement over 2007 but is not sufficient to meet the NCLB requirement. If any subgroup does not meet requirement, the school does not meet the requirement.

The percentage of Sarasota schools that made AYP dropped from 49 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in 2008. Statewide, the percentage of schools that met AYP dropped from 34percent to 24 percent.

Florida has been named one of six states that will pilot a federal program to align its state accountability criteria with the federal NCLB requirements and to explore alternative means of improving the performance of schools that repeatedly fail to make AYP.

Details of the 2008 scores and historical information about school grades and AYP are posted in the link below: