Schools of Hope & the Loss of Hurricane Evacuation Shelter Capacity

Public schools make up the majority of hurricane evacuation shelters in Florida. These shelters have been built with taxpayer dollars and are available to the public in the event of a significant storm event. All the designated hurricane evacuation shelters in Manatee and Sarasota County are public schools. There are 12 designated hurricane shelters in Sarasota County and 26 designated hurricane shelters in Manatee County.

Yet, with the new legislation known as the Schools of Hope, recently passed and signed by the Governor, some public school classrooms may not be available as shelters. The State of Florida ignored hurricane shelter capacity when doling out public school space to for-profit corporations.

Schools of Hope are managed by private for-profit educational companies that can take over underutilized public-school classrooms. Schools of Hope are not subject to the oversight of local school boards. They do not have to answer to local county commissioners or emergency management departments.

According to the rules for Schools of Hope, any dispute between a school board and the Schools of Hope would be referred to the State Board of Education, which will assign a magistrate to settle the dispute. Nowhere in the legislation is it mandated that Schools of Hope must open their classrooms to the public during an evacuation, even if classrooms were constructed to serve as hurricane shelters.

Do we have to wait for a hurricane to make landfall before we start to haggle with the CEO of the Schools of Hope for shelter space? Evacuating area residents from a dangerous hurricane may take up to 60 hours. Those evacuees unable to leave the area will put more pressure on already-strained public shelters.

The sharks have already begun circling. Sarasota County has received three applications for the Schools of Hope takeover: Brookside Middle School, Oak Park, and Booker Elementary. Manatee County has received two applications: Lincoln Memorial Middle School and the Sara Scott Harllee Center.

Brookside Middle School is a designated hurricane evacuation shelter. Brookside was built with Sarasota taxpayers’ dollars to withstand the impact of a hurricane. It’s expensive to build these hurricane-hardened structures, but it's necessary for the safety of our citizens.

The Brookside takeover is not unique. This may only be the beginning, as the Schools of Hope legislation puts all public schools, including those designated as hurricane evacuation shelters, at risk of being taken over.

The Florida Department of Education rules governing the operation of Schools of Hope does not specifically address the use of these schools as hurricane shelters. Since the rules that define the management of the Schools of Hope have not been finalized, it remains unclear whether Sarasota or Manatee will lose hurricane shelter capacity.

Since 1989, the citizens of Sarasota have voted “yes” for an additional penny sales tax. This money can only be used for capital improvements such as building facilities. A good portion of this money was used to build hurricane-hardened schools, such as Brookside.

The new legislation also requires underutilized public schools to provide, free of charge, the following services to the Schools of Hope: custodial services, maintenance services, school safety services, food services, nursing services, and student transportation services.

ManaSota-88 has become alarmed with the present and increasing shortage of hurricane shelters needed to accommodate the people in the event of a major hurricane. Allowing Schools of Hope operators to use school district facilities free of charge while reducing hurricane shelter capacity will have a devastating effect on the health and safety of Florida’s citizens.

Citizens should not have to come hat in hand and beg a Schools of Hope operator for shelter space in a building that was built with local taxpayers’ money. For-profit educational corporations should not be allowed to reduce hurricane shelter capacity for the citizens of Florida. There is no fixing the Schools of Hope legislation. It needs to be gutted.

Glenn Compton is the Chairman of ManaSota 88, a non-profit organization that has spent over 30 years fighting to protect the environment of Manatee and Sarasota counties.