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District Breaks Ground on Historic School
(BRADENTON, FL - November 4, 2008) More than 30 extended family members of the late Garfield DeVoe Rogers Sr. were on hand Monday evening, November 3, 2008, to witness the historic groundbreaking of the Manatee School District´s newest school. The school, which will be the first Manatee District School to be submitted to the United States Green Building Council for “Green Certification,” will bear the name of G.D. Rogers Gardens Elementary School in honor of the black business entrepreneur and community leader who passed away in 1951.
Dwight Josey, the great grandson of Mr. Rogers, spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony on behalf of the Rogers family.
“My great grandfather loved this community and he loved education so this is a great honor for our family,” Mr. Josey said. “On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this happen.”
In addition to the school district, many various organizations and elements of the community joined together to come up with a site and a plan for a new elementary school in Bradenton´s central corridor. Participants in the process included Mayor Wayne Poston and the City of Bradenton, Wenston DeSue and the Bradenton Housing Authority, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Manatee County as well as Eloise Bacon and Raphael Allen and the Manatee County Community Action Team.
Rogers Gardens Elementary is being built on 13th Ave. W., just east of McKechnie Field, the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. When completed, the $17.3 million school will have 580 student stations and will incorporate state of the art energy-efficient systems, indoor air-quality management, low-emitting materials, water-use reduction fixtures and recycled materials among its many “Green” features.
Scheduled to open to students in August 2009, Rogers Gardens Elementary will also have a close working relationship with the University of South Florida´s Sarasota-Manatee Campus. Under the relationship with USF, teachers at Rogers Gardens Elementary will receive additional professional development opportunities and will work closely with USF students planning to enter the teaching profession.
School Board chairwoman Barbara Harvey was joined at the groundbreaking ceremony by fellow board members Jane Pfeilsticker, Robert Gause, Harry Kinnan and Walter Miller. Superintendent Roger Dearing presided over the ceremony and there was a reception at the 13th Avenue Community Center following the groundbreaking.
Mr. G.D. Rogers was a prominent black entrepreneur in the Tampa Bay area and pillar of the Manatee County community. In his business career, Mr. Rogers started a dry-cleaning business and co-founded an insurance company. He left a lasting legacy in Bradenton by helping to fund and start the first black high school in Manatee County.
Some of Mr. Rogers´ family members traveled great distances to attend the groundbreaking ceremony. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Keith Cromartie, Mr. Rogers´ first great-grandchild, traveled to Bradenton from Germany to attend the groundbreaking. Mary Rogers Brewer, a daughter of Mr. Rogers, made the trip from San Francisco.
“My great grandfather was a very quiet man, a very humble man who did a lot for others,” Col. Cromartie said. “He loved education so it is fitting that naming this school for him is the final public recognition of his legacy.”