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.