Volunteer group left wondering why Pinellas school district closed local community center
CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Pinellas County School District closed the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Community Center, and now the group of volunteers who has been running it for the past 11 years wants to know why.
The MLK Junior Community Center was supposed to be demolished back in 2012 when the Pinellas County School board, who owned the building, didn’t want it anymore.
The MLK Coalition formed, which is the group of volunteers who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the community center alive.
"Forty years of service to this community, it was like, ‘can we still have this’, and thank God the school board said yes at that time, but now it’s like, where are we," said Carmen Lundy, the coalition’s board president.
Lundy says the community center was essential, serving up to 200 people per week not including special events.
"A lot of people come for a lot of bills to get paid, we have had a lot of different events, the one that we mostly had was a lot of 80th birthday parties, which was awesome. We had a father and daughter dance," said Lillie Henry, who frequented the center.
In October 2022, the school board told the coalition that the community center’s time was coming to an end.
"They gave us our first 23-day notice of eviction out of nowhere," said Lundy.
FOX 13 reached out to the Pinellas County School District about this, and a spokesperson said in a statement:
"Pinellas County Schools met with the MLK Coalition on July 21, 2022 regarding the district’s intent not to renew the lease upon its expiration in October. In September, the district notified the group their lease would not be renewed when it expired on October 23, 2022. The district worked closely with the MLK Coalition and gave them additional time to transition out of the facility. In December, the district’s attorney sent the group a certified letter indicating a 90-day notice to move out of the premises by March 16, 2023. On March 22, the school district checked the building and the tenant had removed their personal property and vacated the premises. The locks were then changed to secure the preservation of the building."
"That’s what this is all about, they have not yet even given us a reason and that’s what this cry is about," said Lundy. "Why are you doing this to this community. If it’s something that went wrong with the coalition, that you think that was out of order? Okay. But you have closed a lifeline to a community. Tell us why."
The school board says the locks have been changed. It’s still unclear as to why the board decided to not renew the lease at the end of last year.