Manatee School For the Arts expanding

PALMETTO -- A steel beam was lifted high in the air as scores of construction workers with hard hats walked the muddy ground below.

The men last week were working on a 45,000-square-foot $5 million addition to the Manatee School For the Arts campus at 700 Haben Blvd. A mid-September completion is expected.

Assistant Principal Terence Devine said the expansion can’t come soon enough.

“I’m at 99 percent capacity every (class) period,” he said. “I have eight teachers pushing carts around the school. We hope to really get this all going and get the kids in the classroom.”

The school campus -- home to the charter school with the highest enrollment in Manatee -- will expand to about 22 acres, part of a recent land purchase by the school. School officials expect an enrollment for the coming academic year of 1,531 students -- about 200 more than last.

The new building will include three floors with enlarged classes for dance, Tae Kwon Do and wrestling. The second floor will have 13 classrooms and the third floor 10 classrooms, Devine said.

The school has received the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools Gold Seal of Excellence Award for the 2011-12 school year, recognized by the organization for its efforts in parent involvement, staff retention, financial man- agement and governing board performance.

Students like 15-year-old Sarah Martin say there’s a genuine level of excitement about the new construction.

“I heard that it’s supposed to help get more college-level classes,” Sarah said about the new building.

The building will add some extras the school is now missing.

“We don’t have a gym,” Devine said. “Our physical education classes meet in our cafeteria and then go outside.”

The new Tae Kwon Do room will honor former teacher Ken Ellis, who was shot to death in March at his house.

Devine said Ellis had been involved in some of the planning for the building. “One of the things he bemoaned was storage space,” Devine said.

The expansion will allow the school to continue to be innovative in its course offerings.

The school has partnered with Palmetto’s Andersen RacePark to offer a Physics of Motor Sports program, a new approach to teaching traditional physics by incorporating car racing with science.

“We agree with the national research that STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math -- are needed areas to encourage students,” Devine said.

Offering STEM courses with a twist has spurred interest among students, he said.

“We look at things from a different perspective. The purpose of the class is not to develop racers. The purpose of the class is to develop scientists and engineers,” he said.

“Our enrollment in physics has gone up 400 percent.”

Last year, the school had one physics class with 15 students. In August, the school will launch three physics classes each with 25 students enrolled.

Using applied methods to teach academics is a mindset that carries over to other programs throughout the school, including marine biology, guitar and the class Sarah signed up for -- film and humanities.

“I want to be a history teacher,” she said. “This class relates how history influenced film.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee School For the Arts expanding."