Escambia schools district buys land for new school in growing Beulah area

Escambia County Public Schools is planning to build a new school about a third of a mile away from Beulah Elementary School.

“It will take us about six months to go through all the preliminaries after purchasing that property, and then you got to design and plan. So, it's not something that's going to happen for the 2025-26 school year, but it's in preparation because of the development that is occurring in that part of our county,” ECPS Superintendent Keith Leonard told the News Journal.

The Escambia County School Board approved the $3.9 million purchase of the 39-acre property this month, and Leonard said district has been looking for land purchasing opportunities to help relieve pressure on schools that are reaching capacity.

“They (the school board) told us begin to look for property that is scalable for schools within that corridor of development,” Leonard said. “It was a blessing to us here at the school district that our board said, ‘go forth and do.’”

Beulah Elementary School is already utilizing portable classrooms and had to limit enrollment for the 2024-25 school year to those who live in the school zone, rather than allowing families to apply for school choice at Beulah Elementary School. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 818 students already enrolled for the fall. The school has a total capacity of 876, including both traditional and modular classroom models.

Residential growth is expected to continue in the Beulah area , with a 350-unit neighborhood being built right across the street from the elementary school, according to Leonard, in addition to other development happening down Mobile Highway and on Beulah Road.

Leonard will be discussing specific plans for the school with the school board over the next three weeks, but his initial idea is to create a primary school and intermediate school, where one school would perhaps be for kindergarten through second grade, and the other for children in third through fifth grade.

The plans are flexible, as the district needs to decide on “whatever is going to be most conducive to serving the students that live within that zone and still provide capacity,” according to Leonard. “It's growing, and we need to make sure that we have room seats available at each of those sites and move away from some of the portables.”

“We look at it from a lot of different factors,” Leonard said of determining grade levels for the school. “Logistically - from bus ridership, car riders, start time, end time. Academic transition - where's the best place to have that academic transition? Academic impact on feeder programs? What would it do to the local middle school? What would it do to enhance academic improvement at the local middle school? Then, how does that zone?”

Beulah Elementary students currently feed into four schools, according to Leonard: Bellview Middle School, Brown Barge Middle School, charter school Beulah Academy of Science and Beulah Middle School.

Related: Escambia County Schools half-cent sales tax has transformed district | Guestview

The Beulah area is only one part of the district’s expansion plans. One project currently underway is the rebuild and revamping of Myrtle Grove Elementary School , which served as the oldest standing elementary school in Escambia County.

None of the school construction projects - whether they be completely new schools, rebuilds or remodels- would be possible without the help of the citizens' half-cent sales tax , according to Leonard.

“The only way those things take place - because we get zero funding from the state as it's related to school upkeep and purchases for acquisitions of land and/or the new builds - it is only because of the citizens of our county. Many thanks to our Half Cent Sales Tax Watchdog Committee because they make certain that those funds that come from our taxpayers are only spent on allowable in allowable manners, and we have been diligent in doing so,” Leonard said.

Most recently, the half-cent sales tax has helped fund Myrtle Grove, the improvements made to O. J. Semmes Elementary, the renovations to Ferry Pass Middle School, the construction of Pleasant Grove Elementary, construction of Kingsfield Elementary School, the renovations to West Florida High School and the construction of Beulah Middle School.

“I say, go out there and visit any of those sites, and you'll be proud to be able to say as a taxpayer − I know I am − that we helped fund those buildings for our students,” Leonard said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia schools district buys land for new school in growing Beulah area