Debunking the claim about empty student stations in district
A recent letter to the editor inaccurately asserted that the school district has more than 10,000 empty student stations and that we are arbitrarily closing schools. The letter referenced a survey, which is actually an annual report each school district files with the Florida Department of Education. The letter writer is simply interpreting the data in that annual report incorrectly.
The writer did not realize that 2,595 of the empty student stations attributed to our school district in that report are at Manatee Technical College, which is for adult and career education, not traditional Pre-K through 12th grade education; 959 of the student stations are attributed to Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary, which is now closed; 966 are attributed to Rowlett Elementary, which is now a conversion charter school; and 3,216 student stations are attributable to portables.
Those numbers total 7,736; which reduces the number of available empty student stations from 10,000 to 2,264. Keep in mind our school district is growing by an average of 896 students a year over the last four years.
While we are proud that the Manatee district built 19 new schools during the first 15 years of the half-penny sales tax (11 brand new schools and eight total rebuilds), additional new schools will be needed to accommodate current and future growth.
Dr. Diana Greene
The letter strongly implies the district is trying to sneak our facility needs by the watchful eye of the public. That is also inaccurate.
The school district conducted a very public Facilities Master Planning process between September 2015 and January 2016. That process included a widely publicized Educational Futures Conference that was open to the public and held at Manatee Technical College, two Community Dialogue Sessions (one in October and one in December) as well as a Steering Committee comprised of local citizens and school district employees that met five times in different parts of Manatee County. You can view the proposals that came out of that process by visiting the referendum page on our school district’s website at manateeschools.net.
While we are proud that the Manatee district built 19 new schools during the first 15 years of the half-penny sales tax (11 brand new schools and eight total rebuilds), additional new schools will be needed to accommodate current and future growth. In addition, many existing schools have costly maintenance and repair needs which have been deferred that must be addressed, and we are working diligently to stay up with rapidly changing technology, security and transportation demands.
Our school district’s financial ratings were just upgraded by Fitch Ratings, our district graduation rate has increased more than 13 percent since 2011, our students continue to dominate state and national Technology Student Association and SkillsUSA competitions and despite tight budgets, our schools offer a diverse and successful array of arts, athletic and JROTC opportunities.
For all of those reasons, we believe the School District of Manatee County is on the Right Path, Right Now. We thank our community for your support of our students and schools.
Dr. Diana Greene is the superintendent of the School District of Manatee County.
This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Debunking the claim about empty student stations in district."