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A private charter school company would like to open the 1,200- to 1,700-student school by the 2003-04 school year.
By JULIE CHURCH
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 4, 2001
EAST LAKE -- A south Florida charter school company plans to submit an application by Oct. 1 to build a charter school for kindergarten through eighth grade at the corner of Keystone and East Lake roads.
Chancellor Academies, a private company that operates 35 charter schools nationwide and 11 in Florida, wants to construct two buildings on a 44-acre tract of land owned by the Pinellas County School District.
One building would house children in grades kindergarten through five, and a separate building would be for students in sixth through eighth grades.
The school would draw students from both Pinellas and Pasco counties, said Octavio Visiedo, chairman of Chancellor Academies, based in the Coconut Grove section of Miami. The concept is based on a similar charter school now in its second year of operation in central Florida.
Four Corners Charter School is in Davenport and draws students from Osceola, Lake, Orange and Polk counties. It has 1,108 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
"We've already established a school model in Osceola County," Visiedo said. "We think that this is a model that promotes partnerships between the charter school and the school district."
If the company's application is approved, Visiedo said Chancellor Academies would like to open the school by the 2003-04 school year. It would potentially have 1,200 to 1,700 students. He estimates the cost at $17-million.
The news came as a surprise to Oldsmar officials and residents who have been working to get a middle school in northeast Pinellas County.
A volunteer committee of parents from Oldsmar and East Lake lobbied Pinellas County Schools last spring to build a district-run middle school on that parcel of land but was told funding for additional schools was not available in the East Lake area.
The county's settlement in its federal desegregation case limits the construction dollars that could be allocated to that part of the county, said Steve Swartzel, the Pinellas administrator who oversees charter schools.
But other joint district school proposals have received special funding from the state Legislature, he said.
"I would love to see something a little closer to Oldsmar," said Rita Diehl, chair of the volunteer committee, but "I would support any efforts to build a middle school near Oldsmar."
Diehl said she has been talking to two Oldsmar developers who may be interested in sponsoring a charter middle school in that city. She said that she will continue those discussions but that her group would not be ready to submit an application this year.
Chancellor Academies submitted applications to build two 600-student elementary schools at unnamed sites last year but withdrew the applications after facing criticism from an attorney for the NAACP.
Enrique Escarraz objected to the applications because they did not specifically promise to follow the court order or to make diversity a goal in student population and staff.
The company also said last year it might ask parents to sign an agreement promising involvement in the school. That violates a provision of the desegregation order that won't allow new countywide fundamental schools until 2007.
Visiedo said the company withdrew its applications last year so that it could become familiar with the provisions of the desegregation order and make appropriate changes to the application it plans to submit this year.
"We will have an aggressive campaign to make sure all students are encouraged to attend our charter school," he said.
-- Julie Church can be reached at (727) 445-4229 or church@sptimes.com.