Students, parents urge Sarasota board not to relocate Suncoast Polytech to Brookside

Dozens of students, parents and alumni told the Sarasota County School Board during public comment that a plan to relocate Suncoast Polytechnical High School (SPHS) from its campus adjacent to Suncoast Technical College (STC) to Brookside Middle School would dismantle programs and relationships they said are central to the school’s success.

“Everything that makes SPHS so special is the tightness between the students,” said Anthony Boris, a Suncoast Polytech student. “If this merger goes through ... you will demolish everything my community has built.”

The speakers — many of them current SPHS students and parents — said the relocation would interrupt career-and-technical-education (CTE) pathways, block scheduling, dual-enrollment arrangements with STC, and specialized labs that students use for engineering, animation, robotics, automotive and culinary coursework. Several commenters said SPHS relies on daily, walkable access to STC facilities that they said could not be replicated at Brookside.

Student speakers repeatedly described SPHS as a small, selective program; commenters said the school operates with a cap of about 600 students (roughly 150 per grade), high AP participation, and an academic culture built around small class sizes and hands-on lab access. “Moving Polytech to Brookside would be a multimillion-dollar endeavor,” one student said, noting the cost and logistical complexity of relocating specialized equipment and programs.

Parents and former staff emphasized the school’s claimed outcomes. Cindy Ephron, who described herself as a former front-desk staff member at SPHS and a resident of Nokomis, said SPHS offers 35 CTE pathways and “a 100 percent graduation rate” under the school’s current model. Several speakers said the school ranks in the state’s top percentile based on test scores; those rankings were presented as community claims rather than independently verified facts by the board in the meeting record.

Speakers raised operational concerns about Brookside’s campus, including limited parking capacity for a larger high-school population and Brookside’s design as a middle-school facility that many said was not built to host high-school CTE programs or block scheduling. Multiple students said they had signed out of classes to attend the board meeting because the board moved its meeting start time to 10 a.m., limiting the ability of many students and working parents to participate.

Board members described the relocation as part of an initial planning phase and said further community engagement and analysis will follow. Board member Barker thanked the students and families for attending and said the proposal is in an early rollout stage; she encouraged continued public input. Superintendent Connor and other board members said they expected further study and community conversation before any final decision; there was no formal board vote on the relocation during the meeting.

Speakers and parents called for a slower, more transparent process that preserves SPHS’s proximity to STC, protects CTE and dual-enrollment programs, and incorporates clearer financial and logistical plans before any relocation is advanced. One parent asked the board to consider alternative uses of under-enrolled facilities and to explore options that would not disrupt current SPHS students midstream.

The board did not take final action on the SPHS relocation at this meeting; board members said they would continue reviewing options and seek additional community input in the coming weeks.

A procedural motion to adjourn the meeting passed at the end of the session.