As Duette Elementary prepares to close to students, Superintendent Diana Greene tours Florida's last one-room schoolhouse

BRADENTON -- With a tour of the last one-room schoolhouse in the state of Florida fresh on her mind, Manatee County School District Superintendent Diana Greene says she wants to take a few days before deciding what to do with the historic building after this school year.

"I'm going to have to take some days away from it. It just pulled at my heartstrings," she said Tuesday after touring the school, which operates on a yearly contract with the district.

Donna King, the school's longtime principal and teacher, wants to retire when the academic year ends, leaving the school district to make the decision of what happens next. Greene said she will not recommend renewing the school contract under a different leader. But she doesn't want to imme

diately recommend what to do, especially since Tuesday was her first time seeing the school.

Options include the district continuing to run the school and making it a destination for field trips, to learn more about the history of education in Florida. In Greene's former district, Marion County, they did that with first-graders, she said.

Greene said she was impressed with the school's good condition, and that it reminds her of the one-room schoolhouse from "Little House on the Prairie."

"When I pulled up, I wasn't disappointed," Greene said. "I could imagine Laura Ingalls out there shaking the bell."

In May, the school board will have a workshop where they can hear Greene's thoughts on the school and also hear from those in the community as to what they think should happen to the facility and its 19 acres of land once the school stops operating.

Betty Glassburn and others in the Duette community want to take over the facility and run it as a center. A dedicated group has been meeting since February, and officially re-formed the nonprofit Duette Community Association, Glassburn said Tuesday. They are also applying to become tax-exempt and to be recognized on historical registries, which Glassburn said will help them apply for grants if the board chooses to give them the property.

"Our committee is just waiting on 'go,'" Glassburn said. "Everything is rolling."

Glassburn said the association has held off on formal fundraising and donations because they don't want to be in the position of having to return money if the board goes another direction. Glassburn's biggest concern is making sure Duette's little piece of history is taken care of.

"This is our heritage, you know, we want this bad," she said.

Just because the school will cease operating at the end of the academic year doesn't mean the board and the district need to rush to make a decision, Greene said. The lights and the air conditioning won't get shut off just because the school year is over.

"We don't need to be in a hurry," Greene said.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 11:52 PM with the headline "As Duette Elementary prepares to close to students, Superintendent Diana Greene tours Florida's last one-room schoolhouse ."