General plan for future Parrish campus of State College of Florida

Manatee-Sarasota awaits Manatee County Commission approval

By CARL MARIO NUDI

By the time many of the 25,000 homes approved for the Parrish area are built, the new residents will have the convenience of the State College of Florida Parrish campus in their neighborhood.

At its Feb. 2 meeting, the Manatee County Planning Commission approved the general development plans for a college campus on about 75 acres, located at the northwest corner of Erie Road and the future Fort Hamer Road Extension.

PROVIDED PHOTO
State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota President Carol Probstfeld stands in front of a sign at the site of the college’s future Parrish campus, shortly after the property was purchased in 2017.

The Board of County Commissioners has to approve the plans at a future meeting. After that approval it may take up to five years before the first group of students begins to attend classes.

But State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota or (SCF) President Carol Probstfeld said her team is working diligently to make sure everything is ready for that day.

“We’re hoping in the next three years, or so, we’ll have all the money together to start phase one,” Probstfeld said. “Phase one is a 60,000-square-foot building, as well as parking and infrastructure.”

That building will have multi-purpose uses, including academic instruction, administration and student services, she said.

The college has made a request to the Florida Legislature for some of the funding for phase one. “We have a mandate by statute to provide some local funding, as well, when we build new,” Probstfeld said. “So it’s going to take a few years to put all the pieces and parts together to get the money that we need, which is $25 million to build phase one.”

Construction will begin after all the funding is secured; it will take 18 to 24 months to get a building out of the ground, she said. “But we’re already starting classes out there (in Parrish),” said Probstfeld, who has been president of State College of Florida, or SCF, since 2013.

SCF is offering continuing education and professional development courses in partnership with the Parrish YMCA, 12214 U.S. Highway 301 N., and CenterState Bank, 12215 U.S. Highway 301 N. Afternoon and evening courses are available at affordable prices, starting as low as $39.

Some of the courses offered include Planning for Retirement, Techniques to Improve Your Memory, Communicating for Leadership Success, Conflict Management and Resolution, How to Showcase Your Small Business and Social Media Marketing for Small Business.

“We began offering courses in January in the Parrish area,” Probstfeld said. “We’re working with the YMCA and a variety of other locations to offer non-credit types of programs, and we’re learning as we go. “Some are more popular than others, so we’re constantly modifying (the course offerings), based on what the population in Parrish is looking for,” she said.

Probstfeld said some of the classes have been very successful and will be offered again. “Others, the people weren’t as interested in, so we probably won’t run those again. We expected that, but you try and then you see what works.”

The other three SCF campuses offer degree programs in a variety of subjects with each campus specializing in particular fields. The main campus at 5840 26th St. W. in Bradenton, for example, is the oldest and offers programs in fine and performing arts and has strong athletic programs. At the Venice campus, 8000 S. Tamiami Trail, the focus is on engineering and technology and some environmental programs. The Lakewood Ranch campus, 7131 Professional Parkway E., Sarasota, has a heavy emphasis on the health sciences. “We have our whole human patient simulator hospital (at the Lakewood Ranch campus),” Probstfeld said.

Probstfeld and her team are surveying the community to decide what the focus of the Parrish campus should be. “We’re collecting data from individuals in Parrish, as well as talking with business,” she said. “We’re sort of zeroing in on what the focus of that campus might be, but we know that this is a very dynamic world and what we collected last year in terms of a direction may be a little bit different one for maybe next year.”

So the college administration will continue to collect data before it decides the programs that will be emphasized at the Parrish campus. “When we open, you’ll probably see general education, maybe dual enrollment, for example,” Probstfeld said. “So it’ll be more of our across-the-board generic until that campus gets its own focus.” With the Parrish campus directly across Erie Road from the newly opened Parrish Community High School, a dual enrollment program would make sense.

Although all the funding details are not complete, Probstfeld said the college administration has been busy getting ready for when the first shovel of dirt is turned. “We’ve been doing a number of things out there already to prepare the property,” she said. “ It had some structures on it, so we had to take down those structures, and we’ve been maintaining some of the areas.

PROVIDED PHOTO
The general plan for the future Parrish campus of State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota, developed by the design and engineering firm Stantec, outlines the three phases planned for building out the college.

The proposed development plan for the Parrish campus, designed by the international engineering firm Stantec, which has a Sarasota office, will be done in three phases. The first phase will have one building with academic, administration and student services. Entrance to that area will be from the proposed Fort Hamer Road Extension that will border the site’s east side. For phase two, classrooms, a library, and student union are proposed. These facilities will be accessed from a circular road that travels through the whole campus. Phase three will include more classrooms and other campus facilities.

“What they (Stantec) did for us is not really an architectural rendering; it’s an idea of at full build-out what could actually fit on this campus,” Probstfeld said. “That’s taking into consideration the part that we need to maintain because it’s a designated wetland and what we would need for stormwater retention. And there is an effort to try and maintain some of the natural canopy to create our own environment and culture out there,” she said.

Locating the newest SCF campus in Parrish was well-though-out. “We did some research to look at both ends of our service district (Manatee and Sarasota counties) and where we have a lot of growth,” Probstfeld said. “That was back in 2015 and … we landed on that area (Parrish).”

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota was established in 1957 as Manatee Junior College and held its first classes in a former Manatee County high school in September 1958 with 502 students.

Classes were held at MJC’s new campus on 26th Street West in 1959, offering two-year associate degrees.

By 1973 the college expanded into Venice, offering courses at the Venice High School in southern Sarasota County, and in 1985 the Venice campus was dedicated.That same year the name changed to Manatee Community College.

By 2003, the college’s Center for Innovation and Technology at Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park was opened, and in 2009 came another name change and MCC became State College of Florida.

Also in 2009 the State Board of Education approved SCF’s proposal to offer a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

Probstfeld was named the college’s sixth president on January 22, 2013, after serving as vice president of business and administrative services from 2003.

During Probstfeld’s tenure at SCF, she has continued to promote community outreach and involvement. “Throughout our history it has been important for the State College of Florida to be part of the communities where we exist, and so being part of Parrish is important to us,” she said.

Participating in the Parrish Heritage Day Parade Festival and Chili Cook Off was one way SCF reached out to the community. “This will be our second year at the chili cook-off and last year we brought home a little trophy,” Probstfeld said. “I think we could bring one home again this year. “It’s important to us to be there, to be part of that community even before we’re able to build our own building, and we’re going to do even more of that over the next several years,” she said.

More information about State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, can be found on its website at www.SCF.edu. For a complete course listing or to register for the State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota continuing education and professional development class held at the Parrish YMCA and CenterState Bank, visit the website www.SCF.edu/ccdenroll; for more information, call 941-752-5203.

CARL MARIO NUDI PHOTO
State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota President Carol Probstfeld, right, holds a general plan of the college’s future campus in Parrish with Brian Thomas, special assistant to the president for constituent and government relations.