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Hernando Today

New School Will Open In 2011

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By LINNEA BROWN

Hernando Today

Published: October 8, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - A new K-8 school's reduced design will continue as planned, but open a year later than expected.

That was the direction from Hernando County School Board members during a workshop Tuesday afternoon in Brooksville, in which board members reviewed the revised design for a new, 1,400-student K-8 school off U.S. 19 and Hexam Road in Spring Hill.

The school's design, originally estimated to cost the district more than $50 million, has now been reduced to $28.5 million due to a leaner budget.

Scaled-back features include fewer classrooms, a smaller gym and library and 8-foot corridors instead of 12-foot hallways.

But with a request from school board Chairwoman Sandra Nicholson and consensus from the board, officials will add a $261,000 art classroom back into the design.

Also, they will approach county emergency management officials with a request to forego designating the school as a hurricane shelter, since the adjacent, 2,000-student high school being built on the same property is already slated to be built as a hurricane shelter - one that will be large enough to house students from both schools.

"Why would you want two on the same site? It doesn't make sense, cost-wise," facilities director Bo Bavota said.

Removing its status as a storm shelter would reduce the price of the school by 10 percent.

"If we're going to storm the Bastille, let's do it before I leave, OK?" joked longtime school board member and Vice Chairman Jim Malcolm, who will retire next month.

If the request goes through, Bavota said the art room could be added without changing the budget.

The new school will also now open in fall 2011, instead of the originally-planned 2010.

The two new schools, dubbed High School "EEE" and Elementary "K," will be built on more than 70 acres of land off U.S. 19 between Centralia Road and the Weeki Wachee North Mobile Home Community.

Both schools are meant to alleviate overcrowding at the district's other schools, with construction being paid for through a 10-year, one half-percent sales tax, approved by Hernando County voters in March 2004.

With a tax levy that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2005, officials have collected $26.8 million as of May 2008. It will expire on Dec. 31, 2014.

In other school news:

Due to unexpected overcrowding at the district's newest school - Explorer K-8 in Spring Hill, which currently has more than 2,000 students - school board members directed superintendent Wayne Alexander to pursue hiring another assistant principal to handle general student issues.

That is going back to the school's original plan for its general student population, which was changed several months ago when one of the Explorer's assistant principals was placed in charge of students in the school's gifted program.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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