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Plan Would Move West Florida High, Rezone Ransom, Build Three New Schools
April 9, 2014
The Escambia County School District has an ambitious $80 million plan in the works that would move West Florida High School, build a new middle school and construct two elementary schools — all in the next three years.
The plan is contingent upon voters reaffirming the half-cent sales tax.
Under the plan, students from Woodham Middle School would be moved to a newly constructed campus somewhere on the northwest side of Pensacola. With zoning changes,the new school would also be used to relieve overcrowding at Ransom Middle School. The current Woodham Middle facility would be renovated and house West Florida High School, providing the school with improved athletic facilities including a stadium and field house. Brown Barge Middle School students would be relocated to the current West Florida High campus.
Overcrowding at Helen Caro and Blue Angels elementary schools would be alleviated by constructing a new elementary school in southwestern Escambia County, and new elementary school would be constructed to eliminate overcrowding at Pine Meadow and Beulah elementary schools.
The proposals are still in the planning stages and must receive final approval from the Escambia County School Board.
Pictured: A slide from a school district PowerPoint presentation, click to enlarge.
Comments
31 Responses to “Plan Would Move West Florida High, Rezone Ransom, Build Three New Schools”
If it’s going to be a high school again keep the Woodham name! Don’t let the tradition fade away!
Why is it every time a change is proposed it always sparks a debate and everyone is up in arms? I have a child that went to Woodham Middle and I’ve been praying for this day to come! It’s a horrible school. West FI Tech needs to be at that campus. It’s a HIGH SCHOOL campus. You all need to remember WHS was closed and three other middle schools CLOSED and crammed into “Woodham Middle School”. That’s probably the worst disservice the district has done to our county. I’ll pay an extra half cent for these changes. It’s about time they’ve come up with some smart moves. HORAY! With all the district line drawing changes and growth in new neighborhoods and communities, remodeling older and dilapidated buildings that used to be schools wouldn’t be feasible and would end up costing more money in the long run. Let’s face it. Most of those complaining will never be happy with anything the school district proposes or decides to do anyway. In the end, they’ll do what they want, and it will work itself out. I am a homeowner and pay taxes for county schools. I’m proud of my county school district. I stand behind them. I’d YOU don’t then put your kids in private school or MOVE.
I understand some of the moves..but building new schools? Why in the world don’t they fix the schools that are causing the over crowding in the other schools?! All the schools listed are part of the school choice and have failing schools close by. That’s the only reason they’re over crowded in the first place. Goodness.. I’ve never seen a society so bent on spending money without first trying to see what the problem is. How can we, as a society, ever learn good spending habits when our own government can’t and vice versa.. if we, as a society, don’t get our spending under control we’re just going to elect more and more in debt leaders!
I don’t know much about the situations with the other schools unfortunately but I think that it’s a good idea to move WFHS. Parents have to sign permission slips for the kids to go Ransom for any practices that requires the children to be on the football field. The football practices and most band rehearsals are held there anyway.
G…..really? Have you been to Biloxi? POVERTY CITY!!! Gambling is trouble waiting to happen!
Use the money to add another wing or add floors like the hospital does to conserve space. Repair, repair, have scheduled maintenance that’s why Europe has building hundreds of years old. Most of the schools are not 100 yrs old yet.
Pay teachers more.
Kind of curious what the county is gonna do with the 2 schools on hecker rd and one on pond st. Quite sure they’re paid for. A real waste.
I bet Biloxi doesn’t have a issue with money for schools because they make money from the casino’s.
Don’t get confused folks, property owners already are paying taxes for schools regardless weather they have kids in school or not. And if I’m correct the second 25,000 homestead exemption amount does not apply to your home’s accessed amount for the school taxes. Also this .05% is sales tax added to the state sales tax by county request and ultimately by voter approval in addition to the property tax!
The southwest part of Pensacola and the areas north of Pensacola are growing exponentially. Many of these schools are well over 50 years old and are in need of replacing – Escambia High School being one of them. I think this is a great idea – our students and teachers deserve surroundings conducive to teaching and learning. I also agree with the point that students can pretty much choose where they go if they have a ride, and sometimes, even if not, so the school district arguement doesn’t hold water. I am for the plan, as long as taxes are not raised any further. We can live with the .5% that the county schools receive now.
Interesting comments, I am doubtful that many are from educators. It is difficult to get the job done in a room that is filled with so many students that you can hardly navigate between desks. Consequently, you do have too many youngsters falling through the cracks, thus low scores.
Considering the population expansion and shift, the plan seems sound.
The argument against taxes has lived for decades. People without children, tend to forget that they went to school and somebody paid for them. Retired people seem to think that paying for education should only last until their children have graduated. Teachers, in general, are very underpaid, often without children in school, and too have to pay taxes, to pay themselves. Homeschoolers are part of the community and make a personal choice to remove their children from public school. Many people pay taxes for roads and highways but don’t drive, again, often a choice.
Agreed, money spent for properly educating our children is an investment in the future of our country and our way of life. Take a close look at the countries w/o sound educational systems.
How about pay the teachers more. Some of the lowest paid teachers in the country.
Building new or making major renovations might be prudent.
What is not prudent and a total waste of money is paying millions to architectural firm(s) for each school. There is no need to do so from scratch for each building in the state.
Along with “pretty” do nothing efeatures that do nothing but try to impress others.
>>>> the State builds the school but School Board has to maintain it.
That’s not the case.
From what I was told a few years ago is, the State builds the school but School Board has to maintain it. If I am wrong please correct me. I agree with both sides. But why not take empty buildings and fix up for now. When new schools are built noone ever thinks about the future of over crowding. My son (16 now) went to Pine Meadow and when he started they have to add a new class every year he was there. I support our School Board but sometimes I think noone ever thinks of the future.
Sorry folks anything having to do with our schools and building new buildings and improving what we have is never a waste of money….it is time we invest in the kids in our county and stop wasting money on other things….this is an awesome plan…..I would rather my tax dollars go to schools than just a slush fund for our commissioners who can’t even be civil to each other and open and transparent to us the county tax payers…..forget about the lottery…that was just a scam to get a lottery in our state…
Don’t complain when your taxes go up, up, up.
I homeschooled for 14 years and still had to pay school tax. No one helped me financially.
I say, those who want this should be the only ones who pay.
If we had kept the same curriculum and not bought Common Core, we would have more money to use. We did not need a new curriculum.
There really is no 1.5% sales tax for schools
There is 1% sales tax for road paving and whatever the Commissioners also want to spend it on.
There is 0.5% sales tax for schools
David fer gooder speleng an grammer
I was wondering what impact school choice has on the overcrowding issue. I know down to even my elementary child I received notice that we could choose her school (she is currently at one of the mentioned overcrowded schools). I am not sure about the middle school choices but high schoolers can pretty much choose where they go as long as they have a ride. District lines don’t mean a whole lot anymore. Also I am sure the revenue that the West Florida Athletic program has some sort of affect on the decision to move to Woodham – which I don’t see anything wrong. The school has established a good program and should have the opportunity to continue to build it. Good programs draw good kids.
No new taxes. New buildings do not give better educations.
WHAT ABOUT LOTTERY MONEY . OR IS THAT FOR JUST THE WINNERS
I am in full support of what can we do to better educate our youth. This leads to a more desirable place to live and grow. What I am not in favor of is when an increase in tax is proposed and said it will only last this long and guess what? If the County ever gets an increase they never go back to what it was. They say lets keep it going because its not an increase you are already paying it now. When I grew up your word was your bond but sadly it doesn’t count with the county govt.
I support helping our schools to help our children but I think it time our school board should look at what moneys they have just sitting around escambia county first.When you sale 5 acres for 1 dollar why would I want to vote in a new tax to support you making more bad discussion.
I had two daughters who graduated from Woodham High School which was closed and reopened as Woodham Middle School. Now this school board wants to close this middle school and reopen as high school. Just say no to the tax and vote out the school board.
Escambia County has some very old school buildings that are in much need of replacement.
The problem is the state legislature has restructured the way school districts can spend money and the funds for construction have been cut so that there is not enough money to fix old schools.
This leaves districts responsible for making decisions.
It is the 1.5% sales tax that allows new schools to be possible.
The changes outlined are much needed.
Escambia County does have a number of empty schools, 215 W. Garden St., the old School Board building is an example as it sits on nearly an entire block downtown. This was at one time called “Prime” real estate and seemingly buyers were lined up awaiting a chance to bid. After several years the building is still for sale.
Perhaps a renewed and aggressive move to sell the unused buildings and other vacant property should be an imperative for the School Board. Monies from sales could be used to build new and repair older school houses.
School district maintenance workers do miracles every day to keep our schools and busses running….Many Thanks to Them.
This is nothing more than an $80 million dollar crap shoot to improve the ratings of each school.
Take the under performing “D” and “F” schools and mix them in with the better performing schools. Making all schools “B” or “C” schools.
Then when the new schools are also dragged down because a new school does not change the teaching, we will get poor performing schools.
And there will no longer be any other schools to close in order to get the new mix to improve the scores.
Fix the problems instead of spending $80 million on bandaids the won’t heal anything.
So glad to see them give West Florida High a school with a football field…. they already use the one at Woodham it will be nice to put the school there. Also, ransom is over crowded….and very overwhelming for in coming 6th graders. Not only that but the ratio of students to teachers is a bit overkill.
Southwest ESCAMBIA County was promised a new High School a few years back, what happened to that!!??? Escambia is overcrowded and the a high school for SW Pensacola is by far much needed!! The other changes are great and need to occur as well.
Long overdue! I am happy to see a plan. I hope they also have improvements planned to move to permanent buildings and get rid of the portable units at Beulah Elementary. Stormy days are disruptive to instruction time.
as a concerned citizen, I believe this is all a waste of money. Escambia County has so many vacant school buildings. Why not renovate and use those? I believe we are looking for a way to just spend money. Do NOT reaffirm the half cent sales tax. We are already paying higher taxes at the pump to support ECAT.
Do not move West Florida and Brown Barge. What’s wrong with everything that’s in place now? The school board really needs to think on this one, don’t be in such a hurry to support.
What about a new High School? Escambia is worn out and overcrowded.