School Board Seeks Name Nominations for New East County K-8 School

MANATEE COUNTY — The School Board of Manatee County is now accepting name nominations for a new East County K-8 school currently under construction east of Uihlein Road, approximately a quarter of a mile south of S.R. 64. The new school, initially being built to house 1,620 students, is scheduled to open in August 2025.

School name nominations must include the person’s name who is submitting the name nomination, and their email address, phone number or both. You can look for information about the school naming process on the home page of the school district’s website at www.manateeschools.net, under “District Top Stories.”

School name nominations can be submitted in the following ways:

Email nominations to: communications@manateeschools.net

Mail nominations to:

The School District of Manatee County
PO Box 9069
Bradenton, FL 34206-9069

Personally deliver nominations to:

Miller School Support Center
215 Manatee Ave. W., in Bradenton

Name nominations for the East County K-8 school will be accepted from Wednesday, August 28, 2024, through Friday, September 27, 2024.

The School Board will then publish the list of the name nominations submitted on its district website on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. The School Board will then discuss the list of names at a regularly scheduled School Board meeting on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, where a list of finalists will be selected.

The School Board is scheduled to select the name of the new K-8 school at its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.

Public comment on the name nominations is welcomed at all School Board meetings and workshops in September and October, 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: SCHOOL NAMES SHOULD BE IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE FOLLOWING POLICY

7250 - COMMEMORATION OF SCHOOL FACILITIES

From time-to-time, the School Board may wish to commemorate a school or District facility or portion thereof by means of a plaque or naming the facility after a person. Such commemoration should be reserved only for those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the enhancement of education generally or the District in particular or to the well-being of the District, community, State, or nation.

The Superintendent shall submit proposed name(s) for school(s) to the Board for final approval. Names for schools shall be considered in accordance with the following procedures:

1. If the school(s) is to be named by its location in the community, the name(s) proposed should be descriptive and of reasonable length.
2. If the school(s) is to be named for an individual, the name(s) proposed should be that of an outstanding civic or educational leader, living or deceased, of local, State, or National prominence and, if living, and also an elected official, shall have left public office for a period of time not less than five (5) years.
3. The name of a new or existing school(s) once adopted by the Board shall be considered permanent. However, should the Board subsequently initiate, or be called upon to consider, a name change of an existing previously named school(s), then in that event the Board shall allow a period of time of not less than six (6) months from said date for community involvement, deliberation, discussion, and debate, prior to its taking action.

Any employee of the District thus honored must be no longer employed by the District for a period of time no less than five (5) years prior to the Board's selection of his/her name for a plaque or for the naming of a facility.  A person may be nominated with less than five (5) years separation from the District but approval must be ratified with a super majority vote of the Board.