ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – As the St. Johns County School District plows ahead on construction of a much-needed new high school along International Golf Parkway, preliminary plans for another new school are already in the works.
School district officials presented the plans for the new school — High School III — during a town hall meeting at Nease High School this week.
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High School III is slated to be built on 77 acres of land in the Twin Creeks area, just north of County Road 210, an area of northwest St. Johns County that is experiencing rapid population growth.
Nicole Cubbedge, Executive Director for Planning and Governmental Relations, said the preliminary plan for the new school is contingent on future funding.
“We are hopeful that we can have that school funded, constructed and ready to open for the 2023-2024 school year," Cubbedge said.
While High School HHH, which will be built on International Golf Parkway near Mill Creek Academy, will bring some relief to nearby overcrowded Nease and Bartram Trail High Schools when it opens for the 2021-2022 school year, school officials said another new school is still needed to really make a difference.
Today, Bartram Trail High and Nease are designed to hold about 2,100 students, but both schools have around 2,900 students enrolled for the 2019-2020 school year.
Nease saw it’s student population grow by nearly 10% in just one year.
The last time St. Johns County built a new high school was in 2008 when two new schools were constructed.
The district is using town hall meetings, including a meeting Thursday night at Bartram Trail High School, to explain the impending attendance zone changes and to solicit feedback from community members.
“The majority of these changes don’t take effect until the new school opens in 2021-2022, but we want to give families that oppurtunity to have that information and to still be engaged before the summer,” said Cubbedge.
Parents will also have a chance to give input on the changes at five different school board meetings before any attendance zone changes are voted on in May.
