Nokomis School

Nokomis School, one of the area's oldest educational institutions, was built in 1924 on Nippino Trail as a two-room Mediterranean Revival style school serving children in grades one through eight, while high school students were bused to Sarasota High, the county's only high school. In 1927, two three-classroom wings were added so students from Laurel, Nokomis, Venice, and Englewood in grades 9 through 12 could attend there, and in 1930 its first class of eight seniors graduated after establishing a school newspaper and yearbook, boys' basketball and football teams, a glee club, and a Declamation and Drama Club, and competing in statewide contests. As the population grew, additions were made to the campus. In 1953, elementary students moved to a new larger campus in Venice, and when Venice High School opened in 1955 the Nokomis school closed, but that fall about 125 Nokomis-area children were transferred back because of overcrowding at the new Venice Elementary, prompting strong objections from many parents over transportation problems and the condition of the older building. From 1921 to the early 1940s, African American elementary students attended a school in Laurel, after which they were bused to schools in north Sarasota. When the County Board of Public Instruction began a countywide desegregation program in 1963, all Nokomis and Laurel elementary students attended Nokomis Elementary School. In 1970, the original building was demolished and replaced with prefabricated classrooms, and after a water supply crisis the campus closed in June 1992 and the school moved to the new Laurel Middle School.

Nokomis, Florida · United States