On Oct. 18, 1976, some 376 students walked through the doors of a new Plantation Key School for the first day of class.
Fast forward almost 50 years later, a new state-of-the-art school serves as the center for learning for nearly 550 students from pre-K through 8th grade.
On Oct. 9, former students and principals gathered with current pupils and teachers for a celebration to mark 50 years of Plantation Key School. Located at mile marker 90 on the bayside, the school worked through some challenges over the decades with storms like Andrew, Wilma and Irma. There was plenty of effort involved in planning construction of a new facility, which faced delays.
The celebration included PKS students highlighting some of the larger historical events in the school’s history. 1870 was the year Monroe County saw its first public school. But PKS’ beginnings didn’t happen until the early 1970s when there was severe overcrowding inside the Upper Keys classrooms.
By October of 1976, the $1.7 million PKS facility was complete. The principal at the time was Edd Adair. In addition to the 376 students attending school that day, there were also 18 teachers, one permanent substitute teacher, two office staff members and two custodians.
The school soon adopted the Panther as its mascot. As for teacher salaries? The pay was only $10,000 a year.
By 1978, the school had a new principal in Ronnie Green.
By the 1980s, more and more people were moving to the Upper Keys. And that meant increased student enrollment at PKS to 500. Teachers, too, increased to 30. By 1985, PKS added eighth grade. The Florida Department of Education recognized the school for its outstanding academic achievement.
During the 1980s, PKS developed an active parent network that contributed 14,000 service hours annually, a feat that continues today. New enrichment programs were developed, including Odyssey of the Mind. Green served as principal until 1983, and Sandi Bisceglia became new principal.
The 1990s saw Hurricane Andrew, which struck South Florida and sent an influx of families from the mainland to schools in the Upper Keys. It forced PKS to add modular classrooms to address overcrowding.
The early 2000s saw some delays in the Monroe County School District’s plan to construct a new PKS school. While the school escaped structural damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the storm forced the district to move funding away from the long-awaited replacement of the 1970s campus. But PKS preserved and excelled in the classroom, sustaining an “A” rating for 16 consecutive years. Bisceglia was principal until 2006. Succeeding her was Vanessa Strickland.
In 2010, the Florida Department of Education awarded PKS the Five Star School Award for more than 20 years of volunteer engagement, student achievement and community engagement.
By 2013, principal Strickland was succeeded by Lisa Taylor, who retired last June.
Under Taylor, the work was still in motion to replace the old PKS school with a new state-of-the-art facility. With a price tag of $35 million, a new building was completed for students to return on Jan. 8, 2019. The modernized facility contains a media center and library, a multi-use gymnasium, new athletic fields, STEM and technology hubs and school learning suites. People enter the facility through Discovery Boulevard, a hallway containing a 30-plus-foot interactive map of the Keys with historical tidbits.
Current Principal Maida Court said the school has 546 students and 45 full-time teachers. Court said she’s proud of the school’s success, having long achieved an “A” rating while also being a School of Excellence within the state the last three years.
“We are proud of the achievements, and we know we did not do this overnight,” Court said. “Today, we honor the hard work ethic and the commitment to excellence ingrained in our school by those before us. We are walking a path cleared by generations before us,” she said.
The anniversary celebration also included kindergarten through second-grade students singing the Plantation Key School song, a cheer performance by the PKS cheerleaders and remarks from board member Sue Woltanski, former principal Taylor and Christina McPherson, school district executive director of student support services.
