Construction projects to yield big changes By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Pasco County Schools has taken on an ambitious construction schedule that will result in significant changes for thousands of students across Central and East Pasco County in the next few years. Projects now underway will result in reopening Quail Hollow Elementary School in Wesley Chapel and Sanders Memorial Elementary School in Land O’ Lakes next year. Quail Hollow will have enclosed classrooms, updated building systems and new technology, said John Petrashek, director of construction services for Pasco County Schools.The technology will be the same as any new elementary school in the district. Quail Hollow also will be larger. The district is adding eight classrooms there to accommodate 160 additional students, increasing the total capacity to 800. The additional space at Quail Hollow will result in a boundary change to bring more students there, said Chris Williams, director of planning for Pasco County Schools. Sanders will be a magnet school for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The school will not have boundaries and it will enroll its students through the district’s School Choice program. The district does want to reduce crowding at Oakstead and Connerton elementary schools, so students from those schools likely will be given a higher priority for admission to Sanders. The district has been working for months on the design for High School GGG, which is slated to open in August 2017 on the west side of Old Pasco Road near Overpass Road. The school will have a capacity of 1,900 students. “It’s going to be built as a high school,” Petrashek said, but it will open serving students beginning in sixth grade. The new school will affect existing boundaries for Wiregrass Ranch and Wesley Chapel high schools, as well as Weightman and Long middle schools,Williams said. “We don’t have the money to build the
schools in Zephyrhills and Dade City. The locations for drop-offs are: • C1 Bank, 7435 Gall Blvd., Zephyrhills • Goin’ Postal Dade City, 14247 Seventh St. • Goin’ Postal, 38429 Fifth Ave., Zephyrhills For information, call Shelly Brantman at C1 Bank at (813) 715-4700.
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Seminar a plus for Bush Brandon Bush, a senior at Zephyrhills High School, recently shared his experience attending S4TL-Seminar for Tomorrow’s Leaders with the Sunrise Rotary Club of Dade City, which sponsored his attendance. Bush wants to return next year as a ‘yellow shirt’ to assist in the weeklong events. He is the son of Randy Bush, funeral director at Hodges Family Funeral Home in Dade City. Brandon is shown with his father Randy, left, and Francis Crociata, COURTESY OF JEAN NATHE co-president of Sunrise Rotary Club.
PHSC COLLEGE NIGHT
RAYS BASEBALL FOUNDATION AWARDS GRANT TO PHSC
Pasco-Hernando State College Foundation recently received a $5,000 grant from the Rays Baseball Foundation Community Fund Grant Program. The funds will support PHSC’s Concept College outreach program that provides an opportunity for at-risk students to explore a variety of career paths.
WOODLAND ELEMENTARY MOMS COLLECTING SCHOOL SUPPLIES
Three local mothers — Shelly Brantman, Ailisa Starnes and M.J. Price — with children at Woodland Elementary School in Zephyrhills, are teaming up to collect school supplies at their workplaces. The trio hopes to alleviate some of the financial strain on area families by collecting and distributing the supplies throughout the year. All donations will be distributed to
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sending some of those students to Sand Pine or shifting them to Elementary W, Williams said, noting its not yet clear what path officials will take. “In the future we’ll have a school in the Northwood development,” Chris Williams he said. “That’s south of Seven Oaks. Ultimately, that’s going to provide the relief for Seven Oaks.” While the district looks ahead to these projects, it B.C. MANION/STAFF PHOTOS also has completed work Construction crews have a long way to go to get Sanders Memorial Elementary School on a number of improveready to become a magnet school for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. District officials say the school in Land O’ Lakes will be ready for the upcoming ments in other schools. The new gym at school year. John Petrashek Stewart Middle School in Zephyrhills was finished at full middle school and the full high school. The district also is planning to add an ele- the end of last school year just in time for This will provide us relief,” he said.“Then, as mentary school, known as Elementary School the eighth-grade graduation exercises, the population continues to grow, and the B, on land within a new residential develop- Petrashek said. But students are just now demand is there, we’ll build a full-blown ment, Bexley Ranch, now beginning to take getting full use of the new facility. middle school next door to it.” shape near State Road 54 and the Suncoast “It’s still brand new,” Petrashek said. “We have it master planned and master Parkway in Land O’ Lakes,Williams said. The renovation of the weight room and designed for both,” Petrashek said. “That’s going to be a huge reliever for locker rooms at Zephyrhills High School The site is a couple hundred acres, so it Oakstead and Odessa elementary,”Williams also is now complete, Petrashek said. Crews can easily accommodate a high school and a said. completed the renovation of the school clinmiddle school,Williams said.And the district Unlike other district elementary schools, ic at Cox Elementary School in Dade City also is planning to add some other district which have been designed for 762 students, over the summer. facilities there as well. Elementary School B could be built to ac“It was simply outdated. It wasn’t funcMiddle School HH, which will eventually commodate nearly 1,000 students, he said, tioning, so we redid that,” Petrashek said. be built there, is not yet included on a dis- although that approach is still in the discusNow, the district is working on the detrict timetable because no funding is yet sion phase. sign for a $5 million construction project at available, Petrashek said.The school is being The district is looking at opening that Cox that will add a new cafeteria and imdesigned with two large classroom build- school in 2017. prove parking and the drop-off loop, ings, with one to be used by middle school Elementary W, another school planned to Petrashek said, which could be completed students, and the other to be used by high open in August 2016, would be built next to by August 2016. school students. Long Middle not far from which is next to The district also is at the design stage of They’ll share the cafeteria and athletic fa- Wiregrass Ranch High, and Pasco-Hernando a campus renovation project at Pasco cilities, but there will be separate locker State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Elementary School in Dade City.The project, rooms for the younger and older students, Ranch.The school aims to reduce crowding expected to be completed by August 2016, Petrashek said. at Double Branch and Sand Pine elementary involves renovating classrooms, which will The school will operate much like a schools, as well as provide some relief for include infrastructure upgrades, new techschool within a school, with one principal Seven Oaks Elementary School,Williams said. nology and fire sprinklers. overseeing assistant principals who specialPortable classrooms will be brought in to “Seven Oaks really popped this year,” he ize in high school and middle school said. enable construction work to be done while students. The relief for Seven Oaks may involve the campus is occupied.
Pasco-Hernando State College will host its annual college night Sept. 9-10 for prospective students in the Pasco County area. The two-night event will be in the gym at the Dade City campus, 36727 Blanton Road, Sept. 9 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and at the New Port Richey campus, 10230 Ridge Road, Sept. 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be representatives from PHSC and numerous public and private colleges, universities and other education institutions, as well as military participants. Information will be available on admissions, financial aid and programs for post-secondary study. Admission is free. For information, call (855) 669-7472.
BISHOP MCLAUGHLIN OPEN HOUSE
Bishop McLaughlin Catholic School, 13651 Hays Road in Spring Hill, will host an open house Nov. 2 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
There will be family tours, and individuals can sign up for shadow dates. Step-Up scholarships are accepted. For information, call (727) 857-2600, or visit BMCHS.org.
NEW LEADER FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS
Jeffrey Yungmann from the Hernando County school district has been approved by the Pasco County School Board to serve
as a new charter school supervisor. Yungmann began his education career in 1989 as a math teacher. He has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of South Florida, and a master’s degree in education administration from Grand Canyon College in Arizona. Three new charter schools — Learning Lodge Academy, Classical Preparatory Charter School and Pepin Academies-Pasco — join six existing charter schools.
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