{"id":222572,"date":"2026-04-07T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222572\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:59:09","slug":"ocps-juggling-many-building-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222572\/","title":{"rendered":"OCPS juggling many building projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I have shared before, keeping up with\u00a0maintenance on more than\u00a0220 buildings is a big job. I think OCPS does\u00a0a pretty good\u00a0job of doing it. Thanks to the half-penny sales tax that was recently renewed by our generous voters for another 10 years, our public school district can keep up with all the building maintenance and upgrades that are constantly needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The facilities team at OCPS is always busy with hundreds of projects happening daily, from new HVAC systems and carpet replacements to painting and\u00a0grounds\u00a0upkeep.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, at my recent facilities update, the\u00a0chief of\u00a0facilities shared with me that he had\u00a0ongoing\u00a0projects happening in 200 buildings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In District 7 alone, there are 60 projects totaling $144 million currently underway in various\u00a0stages,\u00a0from design to close-out. Here are some local Apopka projects that are happening now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apopka High School is about to finish a major multi-system upgrade totaling around $20 million. The school is getting new exterior paint, an auditorium refresh, digital marquee\u00a0upgrades\u00a0and system upgrades. These upgrades include the intercom, cameras, intrusion\u00a0detection\u00a0and\/or fire alarms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wekiva High School will also be receiving digital marquee upgrades and an auditorium refresh, as well as a major HVAC renovation and carpet replacement. Wekiva is also receiving parking lot cameras, something we hope to put in place at more schools soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our middle schools are getting some much-needed upgrades and attention as well. Piedmont and Apopka Middle are both scheduled to undergo comprehensive renovation projects in the next couple of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Piedmont Lakes Middle is wrapping up a complete HVAC replacement costing more than $17 million. Wolf Lake Middle is getting new\u00a0carpet\u00a0and\u00a0exterior paint. Both schools are getting system upgrades to intercoms, cameras, intrusion\u00a0detection\u00a0and fire alarms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, our elementary schools are not\u00a0being left\u00a0out. Rock Springs Elementary is receiving a chiller replacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lakeville and Wolf Lake\u00a0Elementary\u00a0schools\u00a0are getting a refresh for their\u00a0cafeteria\u00a0sound\u00a0systems,\u00a0and Wolf Lake is getting carpet replacement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clay Springs, Lakeville,\u00a0Lovell\u00a0and Phillis Wheatley will all have new exterior paint. Rock Springs and Wolf Lake will both receive playground sunshade replacements as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, several schools will be receiving system upgrades to intercoms, cameras, intrusion\u00a0detection\u00a0and fire alarms. Those elementary schools are Apopka, Dream Lake, Lakeville, Phillis Wheatley, Rock Springs, Wolf\u00a0Lake\u00a0and Zellwood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It takes a lot of work to keep our schools updated,\u00a0safe\u00a0and\u00a0maintained. I\u2019m\u00a0grateful\u00a0we are able to do the work so our children can go to beautiful and safe schools every day.<\/p>\n

\"Melissa <\/p>\n

Melissa Byrd represents District 7 on the Orange County School Board. She has previously taught at Forest City Elementary and Pace Brantley Hall School, served as PTSA vice president and chair of the School Advisory Council at Piedmont Lakes Middle, and volunteered at Clay Springs Elementary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As I have shared before, keeping up with\u00a0maintenance on more than\u00a0220 buildings is a big job. I think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-222572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}