Seminole goes on land-buying spree
County purchases 13 acres near Yankee Lake, old Rosenwald School property
Christine Watkins, who has lived in the historic neighborhood of East Altamonte since she was a teenager, left Tuesday’s Seminole County meeting with tears of joy after commissioners said they would buy the long shuttered Rosenwald School property for $1.75 million and turn it into a community building.
“I’m ecstatic” Watkins, 67, said. “I’ve driven by that school so often — and it’s been closed for so long — that now they are finally going to do something that will benefit our community.”
The Rosenwald School campus, a few blocks north of busy State Road 436 and east of Ronald Reagan Boulevard, was one of two land purchases from the School Board that county commissioners unanimously approved on Tuesday.
Seminole leaders also agreed to buy nearly 13 acres of old Florida woods just north of State Road 46 and east of Yankee Lake Road for $1.2 million to preserve it from development.
But it was the old Rosenwald campus — a relic of the school segregation era — and surrounding 13 acres near Lake Mobile that drew the most attention, mostly from East Altamonte residents.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Jerrod Blackshear, a minister of Apostolic Church of Jesus on Ford Drive.
County officials will now develop a plan for the property in the heart of the mostly low-income community and likely raze the 15 buildings.
When Rosenwald closed eight years ago, East Altamonte residents said the property would be an ideal place for a community center that offers after-school programs, a food pantry, health department services, adult education classes, meeting rooms and a Sheriff ’s substation.
School Board members later offered it to the county to purchase.
County Commissioner Amy Lockhart, who previously served on the School Board, said the property “sitting empty doesn’t serve anyone.”
Rosenwald School first opened in 1931 for black students. It was one of thousands of Southern schools founded for black students with financial help from Julius Rosenwald, the Sears company tycoon. The school was rebuilt in 1960 after a fire destroyed the original building.
After Seminole schools became fully integrated in the 1970s, the campus was converted into the Rosenwald Exceptional Student Center.
But in June 2011, Rosenwald closed and students were moved to Endeavor School and Hopper Center in Lake Mary.
Cora Snead, 76, a lifelong resident of East Altamonte, attended Rosenwald in the 1950s and later taught there.
“The school is no longer there, so now it’s time to build something for the community,” Snead said. “We need a place where people can go to meet and receive services … We need something that holds us together. I want my people, in my neighborhood, to have something that they can be proud of.”
Regarding the purchase of the Yankee Lake property, the land is adjacent to a Seminole wastewater treatment plant.
It’s also near 50,000 acres of protected and environmentally
sensitive land — including the Seminole State Forest, the Black Bear Wilderness Area, Rock Springs Run State Preserve and the Wekiwa Springs State Park. The area is home to the Florida black bear and the endangered Florida scrub-jay.
The School Board acquired the land in March 1988 from Seminole County with plans to build an elementary school to keep up with projected growth along S.R. 46 west of Interstate 4.
But in 2012, the School Board decided the land was no longer needed for a new school or other education facility and decided to sell it back to the county.
County officials said if Seminole didn’t acquire the land, it could be turned into homes or apartments.
Katrina Shadix, a Geneva resident and wildlife advocate, urged commissioners to buy the land and keep it as woods, rather than use it to expand the wastewater treatment plant.
“I would like to see it preserved,” she said.