Too many students and not enough seats.
- Booming Parrish area gets new high school to ease overcrowding
- Ground broken Tuesday on new North River High School
- School scheduled to open in fall 2019
- BN9 Education resources
That's a problem Manatee County schools have been dealing with for several years as more people move into the area just north of the Manatee River.
That has led the district to create a new high school for the area, North River High. Officials broke ground on the new 98-acre site at Martha Road and Erie Road in the Parrish area.
"The planning that goes into a project like this started over a year ago," said Superintendent Diana Greene.
The school, which came with a $90 million price tag, is the county's first new high school since 2005.
The students who live in the area now attend Lakewood Ranch, Palmetto and Braden River high schools. All schools that are close to and above capacity. North River High will offer special academic programs in automotive, health, agriculture and engineering.
"By opening up North River High School that will give us not only an opportunity to relieve those high schools," Greene said. "But we're continuing to explode out in Parrish, Ellenton (and) north of the river part of our community."
North River will hold at least 2,000 students when it opens in August 2019.
Meanwhile, the county is working to improve the infrastructure for the expected impact on the area.
"Our roads are not up to code, some are just one way, we need sidewalks," area resident and parent Gretchen Fowler. "We need them brought up (to code). We need to work on the safety for our kids.
"They have to look at putting other things on hold in my opinion and really focus on this area."
School district officials are assuring parents that the county will make the necessary upgrades to sidewalks and traffic patterns around the school before fall 2019.