OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla – The Osceola County School Board held a workshop on Tuesday to go over the hundreds of millions of dollars in projects that are underway throughout the district.
Five of the projects are in planning, 26 projects are in the design phase, 31 projects are under construction and 16 projects are in closeout, coming in at $919,207,401.
But not all of the projects are new construction or renovations, some are as simple as new walk-in coolers.
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“It’s pretty remarkable what we’ve got going,” said Osceola County Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff. “Some of those projects are smaller, some of them are deferred maintenance, but we’ve got some major projects that are going on and all of that is designed to ensure that our kids have a great place to learn, and our teachers have a great place to go ahead and instruct those students.”
Some of the big ticket items include the Gateway High School renovation and the construction of three K-8 schools. Shanoff said a lot of these projects are able to happen thanks to sales tax and impact fees.
“Impact fees really help with new construction,” Shanoff said. “Impact fees don’t always necessarily cover those costs of deferred maintenance. They don’t cover those costs of renovations which is what we’re really doing a lot of these days, but that’s where the sales tax really comes into play. We’re so fortunate that we have the support of our community.”
Shanoff said because they have a forward-thinking school board, they’re able to keep up with the growth happening in Osceola County.
“They’re really getting our facilities department to think deeper and actually think more broadly about what the strategy should be moving forward,” Shanoff said.
Several of the projects listed under construction have a substantial completion date in 2024.
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