Imagine School at Land O’ Lakes is experiencing growing pains.
Classrooms are full.
The gymnasium is a part-time lunchroom.
The school’s solution is to build a two-story wing off the rear of the gymnasium, adding about 13,000 square feet of space.
(Kathy Steele)
The expansion provides enough room for seven classrooms and a dedicated lunchroom.
The goal is to open the new extension by August 2018.
The lunchroom café and a teachers’ lounge will be on the first floor. Additional rooms will be on the second floor. The rooms can be used as classrooms, if needed, but their primary purpose is to house programs, such as band or makerspace.
Enrollment is 775 students, just a handful short of the school’s goal of 800 students. While the school has a waiting list, the expansion isn’t about increasing enrollment.
“We just need extra workspace,” said Imagine Principal Aimee Williams.
The gymnasium is transformed into a lunchroom daily, and then cleared out.
That’s not a big problem during the school day, Williams said.
“It’s more for the sports and afterschool programs that makes it difficult to swap out,” she explained.
A pre-application meeting with county planners was held on Oct. 23.
Details on the project are being worked out prior to construction.
This year, the school will graduate its first class of eighth-graders who began at Imagine in kindergarten.
Imagine opened nearly a decade ago in a business park in Ballantrae. The move to its current location, at 2940 Sunlake Blvd., came in 2012. The school’s charter extends to 2028, following a fifteen-year renewal in 2013.
Teachers are STEAM-certified. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.
The school received an A grade from the state for 2016-2017. It educates students from kindergarten through eighth grade, who come to the public charter school from Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, New Port Richey, and even Hillsborough County.
The school has won accolades.
Imagine received the 2016 Promising Practice Winner by Character Counts. In 2015, it was runner-up in the National School of Character competition by Character Counts, and a runner-up for National School of the Year by Imagine Schools.
Imagine is owned and operated by an affiliate of Imagine School Non-Profit Inc., which has schools nationwide.
It’s a point of pride that the Land O’ Lakes campus is part of the Pasco County community, the principal said.
“We definitely feel we are part of Pasco County and want to add whatever we can to the community,” Williams said.
Published November 1, 2017
