“Lincoln Park Was Here: Lake County Group Helps Preserve History of School About to Close”

CLAIRMONT, Florida. “One Lake County advocacy group is helping to achieve results and preserve history after the elementary school closes but starts a new life as an educational center.

“We hope people know that Lincoln Park was here and we’re going to do great things,” said Sharon Keys, executive director of the Lincoln Park South Lake Alliance, a group working to preserve history in Clermont and South Lake County.

Part of that history, according to Keys, is at Clermont Elementary School, which was once called the Lincoln Park School.

“Actually, my first-class class is still there,” Keys said.

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She says the school was built back in 1902 for the purpose of educating black students.

She says that’s why the Lincoln Park South Lake Alliance called on the school board to save the school.

Earlier this month, Lake County Public Schools announced that Clermont Elementary School would close this summer and students would move to a new school nearby.

“So knowing the school was going to be closed, we made a decision about what to do with the facility, and one thing that kept coming in from our high schools was the need for alternative programming,” said Lake County Superintendent Diane Cornegay.

Korengei says the school will become an educational center providing training, in-depth education and alternative educational opportunities for students and adults.

The center will be called the Lincoln Park Education Center, a tribute to the school’s past.

Keys says the past is also part of her story, saying she attended school before the schools were merged in the early 1960s.

“We had a village,” Keys said. “Most of the teachers at that school knew our parents, our parents knew them. We had people who we felt really cared about our education.”

Keys says the center, due to open next August, has already been in operation since 2019, when the advocacy group and the surrounding community first called to save the school.

“We have a plan to renovate the facility,” said Conegay, who says the center’s funding will be split between Lake County schools, Lake Technical College and Lake Sumter State College, with both state colleges offering courses at the Center. center.

“The challenge is to turn an elementary school with small sinks and small counters into an adult center,” said Kornegay.

Looking ahead, Keys says she’s thrilled to see how this center will help her community grow.

“We’re not stopping, we’re looking for other great things,” Keys said.

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