By ANNE KLOCKENKEMPER
Staff Writer

  Improvements to two North Port schools are on the Sarasota County School Board's Tuesday meeting agenda.

  The majority of Toledo Blade Elementary School students will be in portables in for the 2009-10 school year while a $7 million refurbishment of the campus takes place.

  Toledo Blade Elementary opened in 1992, and according to district Chief Operating Officer Scott Lempe, the campus "has been used pretty hard," not only by Toledo Blade students, but also by the first Cranberry Elementary School class, which started at Toledo Blade while construction on Cranberry was completed.

  "They were in a portable farm, but were using the core facilities like the cafeteria and the library," he said.

  Tuesday's meeting should see the approval of the first portion of the renovations —a $68,200 bid by Perfection Architectural Systems for the renovation of a covered walkway on the campus.

  Lempe said the entire renovation process will take a while, so the district decided to get a jump on this small portion early.

  During the renovation, the school's heating ventilating and air-conditioning system will be replaced. Bathrooms and lighting will be upgraded, carpet will be replaced, and classrooms will be painted.

  "We're also going to address some security issues with fencing," Lempe said, "so that when we leave the campus the summer of 2010, it will essentially be a new school. Part of what we're doing is taking advantage of the fact that those portables will be there, because next year the student body will be half of what it is now after (Elementary) School I opens (off Atwater Street)."

  At North Port High School, the lunch area is slated to receive a $1.2 million expansion.

  "The goal is to expand the eating space," Lempe said. "We're not expanding the capacity of the cafeteria. But there are a lot of kids who sit in the breezeway in between the cafeteria and administration building, and we're adding more space to get rid of that bottleneck."

  The goal is to have the project completed by the middle of August so it's ready when students return for the 2009-10 school year.

  Former city commissioner Fred Tower III, now an alternate on the city's Planning and Zoning Advisory Board, said at a recent meeting that the cafeteria was the biggest problem at NPHS.

  "You take your life into your own hands at lunchtime," he said.

  The School Board meets at 3 p.m. Tuesday at its office, 1980 Landings Blvd., Sarasota.