Sarasota County Schools announced preliminary plans last month to shutter Wilkinson Elementary and shift students to other public schools to stave off a charter operator from moving in to fill empty space.
If approved, the closure of Wilkinson — currently a C-rated school and the only one in the county that’s nationally STEM-certified — would be Sarasota County’s first public school closure in half a century.
The proposal has sparked widespread outcry from Wilkinson parents who packed emergency meetings, petitioned lawmakers to unwind aggressive state charter expansions and lobbied the School Board of Sarasota County to find an alternative…