Residents still wait for promised school; The district's pitch for a sales tax increase in 2002 included a new school for central Bradenton, but nothing has materialized.(A SECTION)

Byline: TIFFANY LANKES tiffany.lankes@heraldtribune.com

MANATEE COUNTY -- From the concrete porch of her Bradenton Village home, Barbara Peterson watches as dozens of neighborhood children wait for the school bus, often long before sunrise.

The children are among more than 260 students who live in Bradenton's central corridor and are bused to elementary schools up to 10 miles away to balance the schools' racial mix.

Peterson has heard about plans to build a new Bradenton school so these children can attend class closer to home. But she doesn't believe it.

It has been nearly 15 years since the School Board closed the corridor's last neighborhood school, and it doesn't look as if a new one is coming anytime soon.

"They make a lot of promises, but it's the same as always," Peterson said. "Broken."

A new school for central Bradenton was included in the school district's pitch for a sales tax increase that voters approved …