SPC building to become Oak Park middle school
A Houston company will run the public school for at-risk kids. Classes will be in portables during renovations.
By ANNE LINDBERG
Published December 1, 2004
PINELLAS PARK - The former administrative offices for St. Petersburg College will soon become a school for at-risk middle schoolers.
The school will be called Oak Park to commemorate the more than 80-year-old tree on the campus and the fact that it will be located in Pinellas Park, said Jim Miller, director of real property development for the Pinellas County School District.
Although a public school, Oak Park will be run by Community Education Partners, a Houston company that contracts with school districts to operate such schools.
Oak Park is scheduled to open Jan. 3 with about 300 students. At first, they will be housed in portable classrooms that the school district has already placed on the site.
That should last for only a short time, Miller said. The district wants to begin partial demolition and renovation of the existing building at the site, 8580 66th St. N. It served as an administration building for SPC, which is moving staff members to the ICOT Center.
In addition to the renovations, the district plans to build a 50,000-square-foot, two-story building to house the students. When complete, the entire facility will be about 64,000 square feet and will house 650 to 700 students. The total cost is projected at about $12-million.
It should be finished in August.
"It's a puzzle, and we're putting it together," Miller told Pinellas Park council members last week. "We think you're going to be pleased with it once we're done with it."
Miller wanted the council to approve the preliminary site plans, which they unanimously did.
The approval and subsequent praise of Miller and the proposed school were a far cry from the council's reaction when they first heard that a school for at-risk preteens was going to be located on the site.
At that time, they worried about the neighbors and the program itself. But Miller brought the company's attorney, Ed Armstrong of Clearwater, and some staff members to talk to the council. The district also held a public meeting of the school's neighbors to answer any questions.
Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler said he attended that meeting. The district answered all questions to everyone's satisfaction, he said.
Mischler praised Community Education Partners for their successes elsewhere. The company has shown by its history, he said, that its programs can save kids who are at risk of dropping out of school.
"The success of (the) company has proven itself," Mischler said.
Also praising the program was Pinellas Park resident Peter White, who said it is better to help kids now than to have to support them in prison later.
"I'd rather pay now," White said. "We need to invest in our children or we're not going to have a country."
The program lasts 180 days. Boys and girls are segregated during the school day.