Emma E. Booker Elementary used to have a sensory room, but after roughly 20 years, it had become outdated and limited. Now, with outside support from a local business, the school has a fully renovated sensory space and a new motor room, giving students dedicated places to regulate their nervous systems on short breaks between classes.  

“These rooms aren’t frills,” says principal Marya Annicelli. “They are foundational to learning.”

The partnership grew from Sarasota-based cold-cut supplier Boar’s Head’s philanthropic efforts. Two years ago, the company funded upgrades to Booker Elementary's media center, adding a book vending machine that rewards students for reading—an essential effort, since third-grade reading proficiency is a major marker in future educational outcomes and success.

More recently, Annicelli identified two urgent needs at the school: tutoring support and revitalizing its sensory and motor spaces. Boar's Head stepped up to help with both.

“They didn’t just write a check,” Annicelli says. “They showed up with paintbrushes and tools.”

"We see that a lot of students come with different needs, and the motor room helps them get the wiggles out," she adds. "We’re seeing more and more of that. A few years ago, it was mainly our [autistic students], but now it’s [kids with] a variety of needs."

The motor room works like a circuit in an (age-appropriate) gym, Annicelli explains. The updated space includes trampolines, swings, crash mats and other equipment designed to channel students' energy and build regulation skills.

The sensory room, meanwhile, was reimagined with murals of trees and greenery. Students added painted handprints to ceiling tiles to resemble leaves, giving them a sense of ownership.

“It’s the kind of project we wouldn’t have the funds for otherwise,” Annicelli says of Boar's Head's contributions. 

For Donae Cannon, an occupational therapist who has worked in pediatrics for two decades, the purpose of the rooms is clear. “To be in a good place for learning—listening, observing, all the things you need to do as a student—[your nervous system] has to be regulated,” she says. “If you’re too elevated, that’s not good. If you’re sluggish, that’s not good either. A sensory room can make kids more available to learning.”

"We all have stress, and kids do, too," Cannon continues. "They just don’t always know what to do the way an adult might. We want them to understand there are healthy ways to let it out. If I have a tough day, I’ll take a walk. We want to teach them the same. If they’re 5 years old, it might mean playing with fabric or practicing breathing strategies, then getting back to the day and to learning."

Cannon adds that while such rooms are critical for neurodivergent children, every student benefits. “Everyone [can use] sensory input to self-regulate,” she says. “Your sensory thresholds change with age, and some kids are more sensitive than others. Without these resources, some kids quietly check out and get less of what they need. Others are more visible and it impacts the whole classroom.”

At Booker, sessions are kept short to minimize missed instructional time. “Fifteen to 20 minutes in the motor room is usually enough,” Annicelli says. 

The sensory room cost about $20,000, Annicelli says; it's made with high-quality equipment expected to last many years.

Private funding like Boar's Head's has become increasingly important for Sarasota County schools, which face budget pressures tied to both rising costs, funding cuts and the state’s expanding voucher system—even as demands grow. The district’s tentative 2025–26 budget is set at $1,355,312,054, down substantially from the previous year’s final budget of $1,771,250,908. In explaining the gap, officials cited rising costs in insurance, utilities, transportation and funding cuts.

The story is similar throughout the rest of the state, too. The expansion of private education vouchers cost Florida $3.9 billion during the last school year, according to the Education Law Center. In Sarasota County, the number of students taking advantage of "Family Empowerment Scholarships" rose 40 percent from 2023-24 to 2024-25, while the taxpayer cost of those vouchers rose from $31 million to $41 million, according to the Florida Policy Institute.

Other Sarasota schools also rely on private partners through the district’s business-partner program and the TeamUP Volunteer & Partnership Council, which channels resources from local companies and individuals. But outcomes vary depending on which schools can attract corporate or nonprofit support.

“Our students are 94 percent free and reduced lunch, and we have the highest minority rate in the county," Annicelli says. "We do have Title I money, but it can only be used in very specific ways. My mission is to make sure our kids here have a premier experience. Cuts make that harder.”

Cannon says the payoff of the sensory and motor rooms is both immediate and long-term. “When you have someone disregulated, they can’t listen or absorb," she says. "Trying to communicate with someone in that zone doesn’t work. Giving kids ways to regulate pays off in dividends—for the individual student and for the whole classroom dynamic.”