Terry Conner is trying to make public schools more competitive. School board members seem ready to approve his plan this Friday.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: November 5, 2025
Host: For-profit “Schools of Hope” operators want access to underused public school buildings, and that has lit a fire under the Sarasota School District. At a school board meeting on Tuesday, the superintendent presented a comprehensive plan to raise occupancy throughout the district. Terry Conner seemed to get unanimous support from school board members. That, in turn, makes it a foregone conclusion they will vote unanimously for his plan at a special meeting as early as Friday this week. But Conner’s plan goes way beyond shuffling around students. We have the details.
Johannes Werner: November 11—Tuesday next week—is when Florida’s new Schools of Hope law becomes effective. And that’s when more private, for-profit operators will likely file notices to occupy underused school buildings.
So what will the district do with schools that have low enrollment?
Closing schools is now off the table. In at least one case, though—Fruitville Elementary—the district proposes to tear down one old building. Which, in turn, removes 530 student stations, and ups occupancy levels to the seventies.
But it’s also an opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade: In one case—Heron Middle—the district wants to lease space to a third-party childcare provider, which happens to be one of the services in highest demand by parents.
Students at Brookside Middle
In the case of two historically African American schools—Booker Elementary and Booker Middle—the district wants to partner with Junior Achievement, a national non-profit that offers guidance on financial literacy, careers and business. The creation of what they call a “Discovery Center” would be funded privately. It would remove student stations and raise occupancy at Booker Elementary to 82 percent.
Conner also proposes adding programs, turning schools into magnets. Brookside Middle, for example, would be turned into a hub of tech education, in cooperation with the University of South Florida. It would also involve moving the district’s IT department on that campus. That would remove hundreds of student stations and raise occupancy to the eighties.
Connor’s argument: Technology, natural science and math is what parents want.
Terry Connor at Wilkinson Elementary
Terry Connor: I can tell you STEM and STEAM are alive in Sarasota County. It is what our parents desire. It’s what they want.
JW: To fill those new student stations at Brookside, the school district would use what Conner describes as an “aggressive marketing campaign” with parents.
Finally, Conner proposes expanding elementary schools into middle school, creating a more intimate and connected experience for students.
The plan to reshuffle the current setup of public schools seems to be an actual listening process, responding to input. For two proposals, the superintendent got immediate pushback. He was booed last week in the Brookside Middle cafeteria and he relented. Terry Connor explained:
TC: We went through that process, and we got very clear feedback that that would be very disruptive for the current environment that’s at Polytech. We agree with that. After considering that proposal and making sure that we are checking all the boxes to make sure that we’re making the best decisions for our county in the long haul, we took that proposal off the table.
Students at Brookside Middle
JW: He described how he reversed course, working with parents at Wilkinson Elementary upset about the proposal to shut down their neighborhood school.
TC: They have been so great to work with and really advocating for their community, and I just wanted to say that we’re listening. As we went through, back and forth—every decision you make about a school has a domino effect. That is why this process has taken variations and has changed left and right and up and down, because when you do one thing at one school, it affects the other schools that are in this.
JW: Conner’s ultimate goal: Have public schools outmatch the rising public charter, homeschool and private school competition.
TC: We’ve got to do things differently because we want to maintain our status as the premier educational provider in our county, and that comes by being responsive to what families want and making sure that we’re providing the educational options that people are seeking.
JW: None of the conservative board members made a counterpitch for School of Hope operators. Chair Robyn Marinelli underlined how public schools should woo back parents from charter and private schools. Bridget Ziegler called it a dramatic change and asked questions about cost and tight timeline, but she praised the “competitive spirit” of the proposed plan. The other DeSantis-endorsed board members—Karen Rose and Robyn Marinelli—mirrored Ziegler’s response.
If approved this Friday, will the plan keep Schools of Hope operators out? The Sarasota School District will still have 2,200 more seats than students. But Terry Conner is cautiously optimistic.
TC: Honestly, this is such an unprecedented new thing, and it’s hard to tell, but I think where we’re at and where we’ve landed makes it very difficult to make a proposition that’s valuable for a School of Hope to set up.
JW: Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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