The Laker/Lutz News

Starkey K-8 School

Pasco County expanding its library options

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The Hugh Embry Branch Library is closed for remodeling and the Land O’ Lakes Branch Library soon will close for a makeover, too.

Meanwhile, in just a few weeks, the new Starkey Theatre, Library and Cultural Center will open in the Starkey Ranch development, off State Road 54, in Odessa.

Hugh Embry has been cleared of its contents, with construction set to start on remodeling the 7,223-square-foot library. The $2 million project is expected to be completed by mid-2022, according to Bob Harrison, marketing program manager for the Pasco County Library Cooperative.

Meanwhile, the 18,169-square-foot branch library in Land O’ Lakes is scheduled to close on Aug. 14, in preparation for its remodeling. That project is estimated at $4.75 million, and is expected to wrap up by late 2022.

The Hugh Embry library’s makeover will be a floor-to-ceiling remodel and will include new furnishings, updated technology, faster broadband and other improvements.(Courtesy of Pasco County Library Cooperative)

Despite the difference in size, both libraries will be getting the same treatment, Harrison said.

“Both of these libraries were built, I believe, in the ’80s, and they are well overdue for a complete remodel,” Harrison said.

The two branches will get new furnishings, new lighting, faster broadband, new computers and printers for the public, Harrison said.

“It’s a top-to-bottom remodel. Floor-to-ceiling. Everything is brand new. Literally, from the floor coverings to the wall, to the ceiling treatments,” he said.

Space is being reconfigured at both libraries to maximize the space available for public programming, Harrison added.

In-person programs were curtailed by COVID-19, but the library system hopes to be able to resume those in the fall.

“We really can’t wait to get into some of these new spaces and start doing some of the in-person programs,” Harrison said. “That’s really what the public wants.”

At the same time, though, some remote programs introduced during COVID-19 will be retained, because they are popular and they meet a need, he said.

Funding for the library renovations is coming from proceeds of general obligation bonds that were approved through a referendum in 2018, with a 66% approval rating from voters, Harrison said.

Closing the branch libraries to allow remodeling will pose an inconvenience for patrons, Harrison said.

But, he also noted that it’s not feasible to keep the libraries open while doing the upgrades.

To try to mitigate the impacts, the library system has staggered the branch closings.

For instance, Hugh Embry wasn’t closed until the New River Branch Library was reopened.

It also is looking for alternative locations where patrons can pick up book holds, to minimize the distance people have to drive to borrow materials, he added.

As the Hugh Embry and Land O’ Lakes branches are temporarily closed, the Starkey Ranch Theatre, Library and Cultural Center, referred to as the TLC, will be having its soft opening from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Aug. 2.

The TLC is on the campus of the Starkey K-8 School, at 12200 Lake Blanche Drive in Odessa, and is the result of a collaboration between Pasco County and Pasco County Schools.

“During school hours, the children and the teen area will be closed off to the public and will remain available to the kids. Once school is over, then we open it up to everybody,” Harrison said.

The library has a 250-seat theater and the library system’s first Maker Space for ceramics, he added. “There’s a pottery wheel. There’s a kiln.”

Future plans also call for a library in Seven Oaks, in Wesley Chapel.

“It’ll probably be about three years down the road,” Harrison said. “That community has been clamoring for a library close to them.”

Published July 28, 2021

Growth and change are hallmarks at area schools

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As 2019 becomes 2020, area schools continue to respond to growth, while also changing academic options available on some campuses.

Recently, Superintendent Kurt Browning announced an initiative that will create significant change in West Pasco-area schools to bolster academic performance, but he also outlined some coming projects within The Laker/Lutz News coverage area, as well.

This is what the new Instructional Performing Arts Center, to be built on the campus shared by Cypress Creek High School and the new Cypress Creek Middle School, will look like. The campus is at 8701 Old Pasco Road in Wesley Chapel. (Courtesy of Pasco-Hernando State College)

Specifically, Browning said the district plans to add a grade 6-12 STEM/STEAM magnet school in Land O’ Lakes that is proposed to open in August 2023 and a grade K-8 STEM/STEAM Magnet in Wesley Chapel, proposed to open in August 2024.

That’s on top of previously announced plans, which include an Eastside Technical High School, opening in August 2022.

District officials envision a magnet technical school that doesn’t fit the traditional educational mold.

They say it will combine a rigorous curriculum along with technical skills training — and will seek community partnerships to give students real-world experiences.

The idea is to prepare students to have many options when they leave high school — whether, say, they want to work as a welder for someone else; or, they want to have their own welding business.

While that school is still a couple of years off, the district plans to open Cypress Creek Middle School in August 2020.

It will be located on the same campus on Old Pasco Road in Wesley Chapel, where Cypress Creek Middle High has been serving grades six through 12.

Once the new middle school opens, it will serve grades six through eight, while the high school serves grades nine through 12.

The Pasco County School Board approved boundary changes — which primarily affected the Seven Oaks community in Wesley Chapel — to reassign students from that area to Cypress Creek Middle and Cypress Creek High. The boundary changes will relieve crowding at John Long Middle School and Wiregrass Ranch High School.

In the fall of 2020, Pasco County Schools is scheduled to open Cypress Creek Middle School. It is being designed for 1,600 students, making it the district’s largest middle school. The middle school will join Cypress Creek High and Pasco Hernando State College’s Instructional and Performing Arts Center. (Courtesy of Pasco County Schools)

On the same Cypress Creek campus, the school district donated land to Pasco-Hernando State College for the Instructional Performing Arts Center, now under construction, which will be known as IPAC.

The new performing arts center is expected to provide both educational opportunities and entertainment. It also is expected to benefit middle school through college students, through its programming.

Cypress Creek Middle School was designed to be compatible with the performing arts center, too. It will have a state-of-the-art black box theater, as well as facilities for dance, orchestra and chorus.

Meanwhile, the district also plans to open Starkey K-8 School in August 2021. It’s the first district school designed deliberately to serve kindergarten through eighth grade.

The school is the second phase of a partnership between Pasco County Schools, Pasco County government and Wheelock Communities, the private developers of Starkey Ranch, a community off State Road 54 in Trinity.

One part of the project is the Starkey District Park, which opened its first phase in November 2017. Two additional phases are planned for the park.

The school will be near the district park.

There’s also a third part of the project that involves construction of what’s been dubbed TLC, which stands for theater, library and cultural center.

In addition to new construction, the district also is working to improve existing facilities.

Most recently, it wrapped up a massive makeover of Land O’ Lakes High School — which involved five phases, and required considerable coordination to complete while students and staff remained on campus.

The work was done in stages to avoid sending students and staffs to another campus, or using split sessions.

The project involved reconfiguring spaces to improve campus flow, and modernizing facilities.

It involved tearing out walls, redoing plumbing, electrical and upgrades to technology. It also included a five-classroom addition to the science wing.

The school recently celebrated the project’s completion with a rededication ceremony, and on another night, it offered public tours.

Major Pasco County Schools projects, 2019-2020:

  • Zephyrhills High campus-wide renovation
  • Land O Lakes High campus-wide renovation, final phase
  • Cypress Creek Middle construction
  • Starkey K-8 construction
  • Starkey Library Theater construction
  • East Technical High construction
  • SunlakeHigh design and construction of classroom wing
  • Bexley Elementary design and construction of classroom wing

Source: Pasco County Schools

Published January 01, 2020