By B.C. Manion
When Mary Kanter began her career at Carrollwood Day School, the school was a very different place.
“We were in a storefront on Gunn Highway. I think it was just 3- and 4-year-olds. We used to take them out to parade in the parking lot,” said Kanter, beginning her 28th year at the school.
Now, Kanter is the head of school and CDS serves children from age 2 through 12th grade, with students coming from numerous communities including Lutz, Odessa, Carrollwood, Westchase, Wesley Chapel, Land O’ Lakes and New Tampa.
All together, the school’s enrollment tops 800, with about 130 staff members.
The school now has an Early Childhood Campus for 2 year olds through kindergarten at 12606 Casey Road and a campus for first through 12th graders at 1515 W. Bearss Ave.
A portion of a major construction project underway at the Bearss campus has been completed in time for some high school students to move into the renovated spaces.
Some highlights of the renovation project include spacious classrooms with new furnishings, lots of natural lighting and wide hallways.
The main building on campus has been expanded from 32,000 to 45,000 square feet.
When the renovation is completed that building will house middle school students on the second floor and high school students on the first floor.
Slated to open in October, the building also will have a new 800-seat, state-of-the art performance art theater, Kanter said.
The construction project has created art, dance, music, scenery and dressing rooms on the first floor, Kanter said. Upstairs, there are classrooms for English and foreign languages.
The new elementary school building is expected to be completed around November.
When that happens, elementary school students who are currently housed in the main building will move to their new quarters.
Then, those classrooms will be renovated for the remaining high school students who will move out of the modular buildings into the main building. Those high schoolers are expected to move into their renovated classrooms around January.
The new 35,000-square-foot elementary school will have classrooms in groups of four, with a space in the middle designed to accommodate collaboration, Kanter said.
Eventually, CDS also plans to have a separate building for its middle school, but that’s down the road.
Kanter said the current projects make it possible for the school to continue to grow.
“We’ll be able to take more students in the high school,” said Kanter. Eventually the high school would like to have about 400 students, at 100 per grade level. That would double the current enrollment.
Carrollwood Day School has been recognized nationally for its academic excellence and its quest to educate the whole child. It was the sixth school in the United States to be authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization to offer the Primary Years Programme for students through grade five, the IB Middle Years Programme, implemented in grades six through 10 and the IB Diploma Programme for students in grades 11 and 12.
For more information, see www.carrollwooddayschool.org.
