SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Schools in Sarasota County are getting geared up to reopen after Hurricane Ian. The school district says it will be taking a phased approach to open campuses back up to students and staff.
“Obviously, we want to open ASAP and as you probably know, north county and south county took different amounts of wind and water. However, all of our schools had water intrusion and damage,” said Superintendent Brennan Asplen.
Currently, four schools still have power outages, including Southside Elementary, Lamarque Elementary, Toledo Blade Elementary and Glenallen Elementary.
The superintendent explained schools in the northern portion of the county will open first, with the remaining south county schools opening one week later.
The following traditional public schools are expected to open Monday, Oct. 10:
- Alta Vista Elementary
- Ashton Elementary
- Bay Haven School of Basics Plus
- Brentwood Elementary
- Emma E. Booker Elementary
- Fruitville Elementary
- Garden Elementary
- Gocio Elementary
- Gulf Gate Elementary
- Lakeview Elementary
- Phillippi Shores Elementary
- Southside Elementary
- Tatum Ridge Elementary
- Taylor Ranch Elementary
- Tuttle Elementary
- Venice Elementary
- Wilkinson Elementary
- Booker Middle
- Brookside Middle
- Laurel Nokomis School
- McIntosh Middle
- Sarasota Middle
- Venice Middle
- Booker High
- Oak Park School
- Pine View School
- Riverview High
- Sarasota High
- Suncoast Polytechnical High
- Suncoast Technical College – Sarasota Campus
- Triad School
- Venice High School
The following traditional public schools are projected to open Monday, Oct. 17:
- Atwater Elementary
- Cranberry Elementary
- Englewood Elementary
- Glenallen Elementary
- Lamarque Elementary
- Toledo Blade Elementary
- Heron Creek Middle
- Woodland Middle
- North Port High School
- Suncoast Technical College – North Port Campus
District officials say those dates could change, but more details are expected to be released at the end of this week.
Venice High School and Tatum Ridge Elementary Schools are still serving as shelters for hundreds of community members who were forced to evacuate, many due to flooding in North Port. The district plans to close those two shelters at the end of the day Friday, to allow time for cleaning ahead of the schools’ reopening.
“I really thought we would have a couple of schools that maybe just had the slab left when you were looking at those winds, so we were incredibly happy about that, but those whose houses are leveled, we are very concerned about those families and those employees that are in that situation and we need to try to help them as much as possible,” said Superintendent Asplen.
Parents can find more details at www.sarasotacountyschools.net/hurricane.