TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A new middle school is taking shape in one of the fastest-growing areas of Hillsborough County as the school district works to keep up with residential growth in Wimauma.<\/p>\n
The Hillsborough County School Board is expected to select a permanent name for the new campus Tuesday. The three finalists are Dr. Sylvia Cantrell Albritton, Kenneth Otero and Christopher Hartwell Davis.<\/p>\n
The school is under construction on West Lake Drive and is scheduled to open in August 2027. It will serve students in grades six through eight.<\/p>\n
While some schools in southern Hillsborough County have experienced declining enrollment, Wimauma has continued to see student growth, prompting the district to add capacity in the area.<\/p>\n
District officials say the new campus will offer more than a traditional middle school experience. Students are expected to have access to accelerated academic programs, opportunities to earn high school credit, industry certifications, clubs, and sports.<\/p>\n
The goal is to create a pathway into nearby Aquilla J. Morgan High School while giving students opportunities to begin earning credits and exploring potential careers before reaching high school.<\/p>\n
The growth in Wimauma comes as Hillsborough County Public Schools continues to see an overall decline in enrollment.<\/p>\n
The district is down just over 2,500 students compared with its spring enrollment, according to the district. While that represents a decline, it is smaller than the losses Hillsborough schools has experienced in some recent years.<\/p>\n
The district has lost as many as 13,000 students in recent years, with school choice playing a significant role.<\/p>\n
Some students have enrolled in Florida Virtual School and other educational options, contributing to the districtwide decline.<\/p>\n
The new Wimauma middle school represents a different challenge for the district: adding classroom space in an area where residential development and student enrollment are continuing to grow.<\/p>\n
The school board\u2019s vote Tuesday is expected to make one of the three proposed names official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A new middle school is taking shape in one of the fastest-growing areas of Hillsborough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,770,113,276,2635,115,135,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-387071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-education","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jason-lanning","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387071","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=387071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}