Somerset Academy Inc. has received the nearly unanimous support of the Port St. Lucie City Council ahead of its application submission to St. Lucie Public Schools. The charter school operator is applying to open a career-technical academy in the Port St. Lucie jobs corridor known as Southern Grove south of Tradition proper.
The council spent little time discussing its resolution of support prior to taking a vote last week. It did, however, direct Mayor Gregory Oravec to write a letter to the Department of Education Commissioner expressing the city’s support.
“Done,” Mayor Oravec said. “Put it on my list.”
The resolution passed with a vote of 4-1, with Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan voting against.
“I don’t know what’s in the application,” said Morgan in explaining her rationale for the nay vote. Morgan said she couldn’t support it without seeing the application first.
Morgan originally voted against Somerset Academy’s proposal to bring in a career-tech charter school – not because she is against the company itself, but because of the process.
“The RFQ [request for qualifications] was rushed,” she repeated during last week’s council meeting. The city received just one response – that of Somerset Academy. She called having just one response “disheartening.”
Despite her opposition to the resolution supporting the application, Morgan did vote to affirm a letter of intent from the school to lease the land in Southern Grove on which the school would be built.
Somerset Academy was expected to submit its application to St. Lucie Public Schools by Feb. 1. If the School Board approves the application, Somerset Academy expects to move forward quickly to build the school.
However, if the School Board rejects the application, Somerset Academy is expected to appeal to the Florida Department of Education. An appeal process could delay the opening of the school, provided the DOE ultimately approves the application.
Somerset Academy Inc. already operates two charter schools in St. Lucie County: Somerset College Preparatory Academy on NW California Boulevard, and Somerset Academy St. Lucie on SW Yamada Drive.
The career-tech charter’s potential location would be on the east side of Village Parkway, approximately a half-mile south of Discovery Way. It’s currently vacant agriculture land used for cattle grazing.
Once fully established, Somerset’s career-tech school would offer courses, training and certification in numerous fields including architecture and construction, manufacturing, health sciences, human services and hospitality, to name a few.
The school expects to offer architecture and construction upon opening. Such areas of certification and training could include air conditioning, refrigeration and heating technology, carpentry, electricity and plumbing.
Somerset Academy Inc. plans to have the school ready in time for the 2020-21 school year, or 2021-22 at the latest.
