The Greater Gainesville community is home to many different schools committed to student success and safety. One of them, Oak View Middle School in Newberry, has a new reason to celebrate. It just opened a new $7 million, two-story classroom building.
The new building is state of the art, with 16 classrooms and a multi-purpose room. It provides a safer and more comfortable, updated learning environment for Oak View students.
“Its purpose is to accommodate the increased number of students and not have to use portable classrooms,” said Jackie Johnson, director of communications for the Alachua County Public School System.
Oak View Middle School serves students in fifth through eighth grade. Since it was built 28 years ago, the Newberry area the school serves has grown tremendously. It now has more than double the number of students it was built for.
“We were over capacity,” said Oak View Principal Kelly Armstrong. “We had more than a dozen portable classrooms.”
Funding From Voters
The $7 million for the project came from the Half-Cent for Schools initiative. It is a half-cent sales tax approved by the Alachua County voters in 2018. Its purpose is to repair, renovate, rebuild and construct new school buildings to replace outdated and rundown facilities.
“To have a permanent room for our kids is what it’s all about,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said they broke ground on the new building in October of 2021, and the construction did not interrupt the school’s operations. They were able to utilize the portable classrooms and school facilities without having to move to a new location for the school year.
“A little over a year later, the project was done on schedule,” he said.
The Alachua County Public School System recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Oak View for the new building.
Johnson said the ceremony went very well. City officials, members of the Greater Gainesville Chamber and others who were involved with the project were all in attendance.
The celebration included adding items to a time capsule that will be buried at the school and student-led tours of the new building.
By Celia Goodyear.