Lake Buena Vista High School opens this week, providing relief

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – It’s a fresh start for Principal Guy Swenson -- as well as 1,300 Orange County students -- at Lake Buena Vista High School.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to start a school from scratch, to set the tone, set the culture and get students set up for success,” Swenson said.

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The campus is located on Daryl Carter Parkway off Palm Parkway not far from the new White Castle and Portillo’s restaurants that opened this year, an area Orange County leaders say is growing by the minute.

“This location was chosen because it showed there was growth here and this would be a central place to relieve both Freedom and Dr. Phillips high schools, and so it’s zoned between those two schools,” said Lauren Roth, of Orange County Public Schools.

Swenson said the school has capacity for 2,700 students but, for now, the school will house freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

“When you drive in the nearby community, you will see there are apartments and homes being built very quickly and I expect even if we are opening with 1,300, I’m sure we will have a lot more than that by the end of the school year,” he said.

Lake Buena Vista High School is one of two high schools opening this year. Construction began in 2019 and work continued throughout the pandemic because demand was so great.

Horizon High School in Winter Garden is also opening this week, set to relieve students from Windermere High School, which opened in 2017.

“It just doesn’t stop. We are trying to keep up with all the growth in Orange County,” Roth said.