Community activists hope the financial literacy center will become an attraction and reverse enrollment decline.
By Ed James
Original Air Date: January 7, 2026
Host: Sarasota’s Newtown community is seeing a transformation. For decades, the Booker schools have been the cultural anchors of this neighborhood. Today, faced with dropping enrollment, these historic institutions are being reimagined. Ed James has a family history tied to these schools reaching back to 1935. He brings us this report.
Ed James: I once taught eighth-grade civics at Booker Middle School, but the connection I feel to these halls goes back to 1935, when my grandmother was in Booker’s first graduating class. By 1968, the ground shifted. Forced integration meant my mother was moved to Sarasota High for her senior year—a “hijacking” of education that many in Newtown haven’t forgotten. Eileen West, a member of the Class of 1968, shared with WSLR the heartbreak of that era. She remembers when Booker was far more than just a school; it was a center of her community. She says that, when they were forced to transition to other campuses, the family-like bond was severed. For Eileen and her classmates, those new schools simply were not Booker.
Sheila Sanders. Photo courtesy Newtown Alive
But the spirit of resistance was alive long before the doors were locked in 1968. Sheila Sanders, a “Booker Booster,” is someone who fought for these schools for over 60 years. Her activism started as a third grader right at Booker Elementary School. Sheila told WSLR that, back then, her class saved their pennies and dimes, but they weren’t allowed to tour Sarasota Federal Bank like the white students were. Young Sheila didn’t just accept it; she organized a class-wide boycott, moving their money to Palmer Bank, a place that respected them.
Today, she sees the arrival of the JA BizTown financial literacy center as a direct answer to that third-grade fight. Sanders pointed out the sharp contrast between a bank locking its doors to Black customers back then and what’s happening today. The arrival of BizTown at Booker Elementary feels to her like taking the keys of the city. Sanders believes that, by investing in educational excellence on our own soil, we are building a system that will be the envy of the whole county.
In recent years, that sense of home was tested again by the numbers. Between 2021 and 2024, Dreamers Academy surged from 240 to 510 students. During that same window, the desks at our historic schools were thinning out. Booker Middle School dropped from 512 students to 440, and Emma E. Booker Elementary hit a troubling low of 395—down from 485 just a few years prior. But with the promise of BizTown and the Newtown Family Center at Dreamers Academy, Emma E. Booker saw its first gain in years—jumping back to 415 students. Geri Chaffee, the founder of Dreamers, told WSLR that “The enemy of legacy is not competition; it’s complacency.” She believes that the family center will act as a safety net for the entire neighborhood, ensuring that every child, regardless of which school they attend, has the resources they need for educational excellence. 
Today, Newtown is reclaiming its status as a center of educational excellence. From my grandmother’s first class in 1935 to the activism of today, the message is clear: the Newtown legacy isn’t just surviving—it’s being restored.
For WSLR News, I’m Ed James.
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