District Addresses Toledo Blade Growth with Plan for Fifth Grade in 2008-09 

 
NORTH PORT – Administrators at Sarasota County Schools have developed a plan for the 2008-09 school year that addresses the issue of rapid growth at North Port’s Toledo Blade Elementary School. Under the plan, this year’s Toledo Blade fourth-grade class will attend fifth grade next year at “North Port Middle School EE,” the as-yet unnamed school currently under construction on Panacea Boulevard about one-half mile north of E. Price Boulevard.
            Toledo Blade Principal Chris Renouf announced the plan to teachers and staff members at the school Thursday (Oct. 4), and to parents of Toledo Blade students via the Connect-ED telephone message system.
“This plan creates a ‘win-win’ scenario for everyone for many reasons,” said Renouf. “Next year’s fifth-graders will get an early start on the school they will be attending for a total of four years, and the remaining grades at Toledo Blade — pre-K through four — will have more room.”
            Toledo Blade’s enrollment is 1,566 this year. Before the plan was developed to send next year’s fifth grade to Middle School EE, Toledo Blade was projected to have an enrollment of at least 1,600 students in 2008-09. Students currently eat lunch in six shifts from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. There are 45 permanent classrooms and 52 portable classrooms, including six portables added this year. Adding more portables is not an option due to state and local regulations.
            When North Port Middle School EE opens in the 2008-09 school year it will be below capacity, leaving room for the Toledo Blade fifth-grade class. The fifth grade will have its own wing but will follow Middle School EE’s schedule for bell and bus times.
            Toledo Blade will be the only elementary school to feed exclusively into the middle school, so the 2008-09 fifth-grade class will be attending the school as sixth-graders in 2009-10. That year a new elementary school is scheduled to open in North Port, which will relieve overcrowding at Toledo Blade and allow the school to include a fifth grade class again.
            Renouf is working closely with Kristine Lawrence, who will serve as principal of the new middle school, to ensure a smooth transition for the students and their parents who will be affected by this plan next year. They will host an informational meeting, featuring diagrams of the new middle-school layout and a dialog with parents of this year’s fourth-grade families, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at Toledo Blade Elementary School, 1201 Geranium Ave.    Additional information will be posted later on the Sarasota County Schools Web site, www. sarasotacountyschools.net, and on the Toledo Blade site (accessible via the district’s site).