The Santa Rosa County School District is beginning construction on a second kindergarten through eighth-grade school — this one to relieve overcrowding in the quickly growing Pace area.
Workers are finishing up initial site work, such as stormwater drainage and retention ponds, to get the 30-acre property near Wallace Lake Road ready to bid out to construction crews in July.
The new $39.3 million school is scheduled to be complete in time for fall 2023.
The 1,200-student school is being constructed to relieve overcrowding at SS Dixon Primary, which is at 93% capacity, SS Dixon Intermediate (89% capacity) and Sims Middle (96% capacity). It will likely have additional effects on other surrounding schools when district officials change the boundaries for each of those three schools to shift students to fill the new school.