Construction on the brand new Spring Park Elementary school had already begun, but Duval County Public Schools and city leadership joined staff and students to the ceremonial groundbreaking on Thursday, Oct 1, to mark the long-awaited moment.
DCPS board members and other city officials joined Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier at the event, held in the current school’s library before moving out to the construction site to turn some dirt with Spring Park Elementary School faculty and students.
The new $36.6 million school will be nearly 96,000 square feet, with a new media center area of just under 2,600 square feet.
“Truly, this is your half-penny at work,” said DCPS District 3 Board Member Cindy Pearson.
In his remarks, Bernier stressed the importance of creating superior learning environments for DCPS students.
“In some of our buildings, you can measure their age in decades. They’re hundreds of years old,” Bernier said. “We have a lot of work to do, and we need to thank the leadership of this board, and most importantly our taxpayers. You’ve entrusted us with a half-penny to do this work and create quality learning environments for our children where they can thrive.”
The design team includes Invision Architecture and STG Contracting Group. The new school will swap places with the public park, ensuring the community retains its neighborhood park while the students get their new school.
Resident News reported that the new school was previously expected to open for the 2025-26 school year. With work officially underway, the new school is expected to open in time for the 2027-28 school year.
The new school for Spring Park Elementary is expected to open in time for the 2027-28 school year.
Pearson said the groundbreaking is a bittersweet moment: While Spring Park anticipates completing its new school, this also marks the pending closure of Englewood and Love Grove Elementary schools next year. Students from these two schools will be consolidated into Spring Park and the new Hogan-Spring Elementary, which broke ground in May.
“Change is not easy; progress is messy. You lose parking spaces along the way, but it is worth it,” Pearson said.
Also in attendance was Davina Parker, who had served as principal of Spring Park Elementary School for more than a decade. Following the groundbreaking ceremony, she said the new build represented a much-needed and deserved new era for Spring Park students.
“For them to finally see it come to fruition right before their eyes is everything,” Parker said. “This ceremony is just rewarding to actually see that this project is underway, and it’s going to give us a place where our children can thrive and just appreciate the environment that they have been given to learn.”
The current Spring Park campus was originally built around the same time as Hendricks Avenue Elementary School. As Resident News previously reported, a fire destroyed the school’s main wing in 1968, with damages estimated at $300,000. In 2024, it received the Magnet Schools of America’s School of Excellence Award.