TAMPA, Fla — There’s a building boom across the Bay area — with new neighborhoods and condo towers.
As the population grows, that’s leaving many local school districts scrambling to keep up.
Starkey Ranch K-8 will be among the next to open and will be Pasco County’s first combined middle and elementary school serving around 1,500 new students this fall. Many of the students will be coming from some of the brand new surrounding neighborhoods.
Other schools like Pasco’s Kirkland Academy of Innovation are also going up quickly.
Polk County is experiencing similar growth with three new schools set to open this fall, serving a combined 4,500 new students.
The $179 million dollars in new campuses are being paid for using a combination of impact fees and Polk’s half-cent sales tax.
Even counties that aren’t growing are making major investments. St. Pete High School in Pinellas is just one of the schools undergoing a major renovation to replace aging infrastructure. Other Pinellas Schools undergoing major improvements include Tyrone Middle and Lakewood and Clearwater High.
Manatee and Sarasota have projects of their own with the $57.1 million dollar replacement of Sugg Middle School and major renovations at Braden River. Both projects are set for completion in August of next year.
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