The Walton County School District is setting aside millions of dollars in anticipation of continued need for new facilities to accommodate growth.
In addition to classroom additions at Freeport Elementary School, the district is looking into building more classrooms at South Walton High School and constructing a new school in South Walton. It is also in the process of renovating the aged Walton Middle School.
“The growth is just off the map, really,” said Superintendent Carlene Anderson. “We’ve got portables pulled at so many of our schools.”
At the end of last school year, the district had 7,910 students. Today it has 8,505.
At Butler Elementary School, they are running out of space with 949 students even after moving out all fifth-graders and assuming the old Emerald Coast Middle School building, according to Mark Gardner, the director of facilities for the district.
The new middle school building has room to grow, but there’s not enough room between it and Butler and nearby Bay Elementary School to accommodate the constantly increasing enrollment.
“We have not been lax in building,” Anderson said. “We’ve had a construction project going every day of every month I’ve been here.”
A committee continues to search for 30 acres of land in the South Walton area for a new school. They’ve set aside $5.2 million, but in the wetland-rich and growing area, continuous lots of useable land are difficult to find, Gardner said.
Once complete, the new school might be a middle/high combination or something else entirely.
“We’ll adjust based on the needs that are presented to us,” Gardner said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.