ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Plans for a new St. Johns County high school set to be built off County Road 210 received final approval from the school board Tuesday morning.
High School III will serve students in fast-growing northeast St. Johns County and will be located off Beachwalk Boulevard within the Twin Creeks development.
Recommended Videos
After the first five days of the new school year, the district estimates there has been a 5% growth in high school enrollment in the county with a 7.3% growth at Bartram Trail High School and 7.8% growth at Nease High School.
The new high school aims to address overcrowding at these schools.
“Even given the current circumstances we have, we’re still seeing an increase over last school year in terms of our high school students,” said Nicole Cubbedge, the district’s Executive Director for Planning and Government Relations. “We definitely still need another high school, even given high school HHH is on its way to being fully constructed.”
The district plans to open High School HHH, located near World Golf Village, for the 2021-2022 school year and High School III will open one year later for the 2022-2023 school year.
The schools will look nearly identical but with different color schemes, the district said.
Each of the schools has a capacity of just over 2,000 students.
School board member Tommy Allen was the only board member present to vote against the plans, citing concerns about entrances and exits.