Manatee County school district's actions should put doubt on sales tax extension vote

Why does the Manatee County school district think that they need almost 100 acres for a new high school?

Southeast High School sits on 27.5 acres, Palmetto High School sits on 39.5 acres and Lakewood Ranch High School sits on 40 acres. The property at Martha Road would suffice for any one of these school sites.

In addition, there is another piece of land on Erie Road called FLM which has 60 acres and has been labeled by the school district as a future high school site.

The newspaper states that the preferred size of a high school site is between 80 and 100 acres, according to district officials. Which officials and what is the basis of this reasoning?

A reference is made to the "extensive process" done by DeJong-Richter in a report. The board has ignored all other aspects of this "extensive process."

This same report noted that the district had 5,500 empty student stations and expects 5,800 new students in the next 10 years -- and that the developers should be charged a specific amount in impact fees. But the district chooses to give the developers a discount of 50 percent.

The school district is once again pulling the wool over the taxpayers' eyes. Don't fall for it. Vote "no" on the sales tax as long as it is tied to a discounted impact fee!

Dennis Puckett

East Manatee

This story was originally published April 10, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County school district's actions should put doubt on sales tax extension vote ."