Add as a preferred source on Google

Florida District to Open Four New Campuses This Fall

  • By Matt Jones
  • 07/19/21

Orange County Public Schools, headquartered in Orlando, Fla., has announced that it will open four new campuses this fall. The new facilities include two high schools, one new elementary school, and a K–12 school for students with behavioral disorders. All four schools will host Sneak Peek events open to the public during the first week of August, before the beginning of the 2021–22 academic year.

The two high schools, Horizon High and Lake Buena Vista High, have a combined capacity of 5,550 seats, addressing overcrowding issues in the eighth-largest school district in the country. The Orange County Public School system is projected to have an enrollment of 200,000 students within the next decade.

Village Park Elementary was designed by Rhodes + Brito Architects and was built by Pirtle Construction. The project budget was $25.8 million, and it will relieve two other elementary schools in the district.

The Silver Pines Academy K–12 Learning Center, meanwhile, will have a student capacity of 280 and cover just short of 150,000 square feet. The project’s estimated budget was $47.6 million, while the architect of record was Harvard Jolly.

The four construction projects cost a total of $278 million, paid for by taxpayers, developers and property owners. The facilities were all built to the Green Globes environmental construction standards. Another new school, Water Spring Middle School, will temporarily open in one of the wings of Horizon High while its permanent campus is still under construction. OCPS records a total of 205 schools for the coming academic year.

Orange County Public Schools has announced plans to open 22 new schools over the next decade. The district has cited high population growth and overcrowding of existing facilities as the reason for the construction push. The plans call for two additional high schools (not including those mentioned above), four new middle schools, one new K–8 school, and 13 new elementary schools.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • California K–12 District Opens New Athletic Complex, Gym

    The San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) in San Mateo, Calif., recently announced the completion of two new athletics facilities: a new gymnasium at Burlingame High School, and a new athletic training complex at San Mateo High School, according to a news release.

  • Texas District Finishes Construction on New Middle School, Admin Building

    The Westwood Independent School District recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Westwood Middle School and Administration Building in Palestine, Texas, according to a news release. The campus covers 106,000 square feet and has the capacity for 650 students in grades 6–8, and it will also play home to the district’s staff and administration.

  • Malibu High School Campus Completes $102M Phase 1 of Construction

    Malibu High School in Malibu, Calif., recently announced that it has completed phase 1 of construction for its new campus, a news release reports. The first phase consisted of developing and modernizing the site of a former elementary school into a new, 70,000-square-foot, two-story facility.

  • Elevating Campus Maintenance: How Power Wash Drones are Transforming Educational Facilities

    As today’s campuses grow larger and more architecturally complex, keeping exteriors clean, safe, and inviting has never been tougher. Facilities leaders are under constant pressure to stretch budgets, meet safety standards, and support sustainability goals—all while tackling the stubborn challenge of exterior cleaning.

Digital Edition