Leon County’s district says its schools are about 6-thousand students under capacity—largely because of students opting into a state program that helps them pay to attend private or charter schools. But now other learning institutions are hoping to use some of the district’s extra space.
Leon County Head Start Director Daryl James says his program needs space for its kids.
"We have here in Leon County 322 slots that we would like to put into Leon County schools if we could."
And Rita Brown, founder of the private Brownsville Preparatory Institute, says she’d like to lease some of that unused space as well.
"This is the right moment for the district to capitalize on underutilized space and generate in a way that's sustainable in the future."
School Board Member Laurie Lawson Cox thinks it’s worth exploring. Especially since under the state’s newly expanded Schools of Hope program, Charter schools could at some point co-locate with the public schools—at the district’s expense.
"So instead of a charter coming in that we know nothing about, we want to look at some homegrown successful programs that we know have a great history in our community, that are supported by our community and are seeing educational achievement. Schools like Brownsville."
The board asked Superintendent Rocky Hanna to come up with ideas on how Head Start and Brownsville could lease the district's excess space.
