Sarasota School Board raises concerns about ‘classical’ for-profit charter school plan

Sarasota Herald-Tribune | By Steven Walker | February 20, 2024

The Sarasota County School Board discussed an application for a “classical” for-profit charter school at its monthly workshop Tuesday, with several board members and the superintendent expressing concerns about its viability.

The Sarasota Classical Preparatory Academy, a school affiliated with the for-profit Charter Schools USA, would open in the 2025-26 school year if the application is approved at the March 5 School Board meeting. The charter projected an opening enrollment of 885 K-10 students with hopes to expand to 1,235 K-12 students by its fifth year, according to the school’s 600-page application.

In the application, the charter school describes its education plan in three steps: grammar, logic and rhetoric. Grammar encompasses K-5 grades, logic grades 6-8 and rhetoric 9-12. The charter references “The Great Works” of Plato, Homer and Shakespeare for high school students.

The school is separate from The Classical Academy of Sarasota, an existing private school affiliated with the conservative, Christian Hillsdale College. However, the school’s proposed location is the same address as The Classical Academy’s current campus off Fruitville Road.

The last charter school approved by the board was the College Preparatory Academy at Wellen Park, a K-8 charter that was previously unanimously denied. However, the school appealed the decision and the board, which had two new board members as a result of the August 2022 election, voted 4-1 in favor.

Board members and the superintendent expressed several concerns with the charter school’s application Tuesday. Concerns ranged from whether enrollment projections are realistic given other nearby schools, the school’s physical location, and the representatives’ lack of preparedness for the meeting as the charter did not prepare a presentation for the board.

Board member Bridget Ziegler, who sends her daughters to The Classical Academy, asked the representatives to clarify that they aren’t affiliated with the private school of a similar name. She also noted that The Classical Academy planned to move its campuses to a location on Bee Ridge Road, which would leave the Fruitville location available for the classical charter school.

Several board members asked the representatives about the current legal limbo that The Classical Academy of Sarasota finds itself in with the Bee Ridge Road location, but the charter representatives declined to comment. Board member Tom Edwards said he felt uncomfortable that the proposed charter school didn’t have a solid location.

Superintendent Terry Connor said enrollment was a “significant concern” of his, saying that the population just wasn’t there to service a charter school. He referenced the school’s projection of 100 kindergarteners, but Connor said there weren’t 100 kindergarteners in a six-mile radius of the proposed location.

Connor also referenced several schools the district was already planning to open as well as new land it had just purchased as further hesitations he had toward the charter school.

“I’m not too keen on (classical curriculum) being a pilot here in Sarasota County,” Connor said. “I’d love to have seen a proven model before coming here to establish that curriculum.”

On hitting its enrollment goals, Ziegler said she could see the demand for more “classical” schooling options, referencing a hundreds-long waitlist she said The Classical Academy currently has. She also said the school could draw interest from parents in Manatee County.

Ziegler also asked if the school was religious in any way, with the representatives responding it wasn’t.

In an interview before the workshop, Edwards expressed concerns with the classical charter, given that the Wellen Park charter has struggled to hit its enrollment goals. He also questioned the intentions of the classical charter given the similarities to the existing private classical school at the same location.

“How come they promise all of these kids and don’t deliver? Is this a grift to get public dollars for a privately held corporation for profit?” he said.

Edwards said he only received the 600-page charter application five days before the meeting, and said he would like to see the board ask for an extension. Districts are required by law to consider charter applications within 90 days unless an extension is agreed upon between the district and the applicant. Board attorney Patrick Duggan said the district had already requested an extension but the applicants had denied it.

Board member Robyn Marinelli also expressed concerns ahead of the workshop in an interview, adding that she only received the application four days before the meeting. She was critical of the school’s written mission statement: “To educate scholars through key tenants (sic) of classical education grounded in a rigorous and data-driven curriculum.”

“That’s just a bunch of rhetoric. I want to know, what are you going to do?” she said. “We would never get away with that with our parents, and community if we didn’t go further into explanation.”

The apparent lack of local involvement with the school was also worrisome, Marinelli said, pointing to other local charters such as Sarasota Military Academy and Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences as positive examples. Of those listed on the board of the Sarasota Classical Preparatory Academy charter, none were from Sarasota County. She asked the charter representatives about local representation, and they responded by saying they would “work on it.”