As students filter into Spring Hill High School next week, the front of the building will look the same as it did last year, but around the corner, work on the Career and Technical Education expansion will be underway.
The Spring Hill School District celebrated the expansion’s groundbreaking Monday morning, marking the start of construction on the $25 million project — one of the major undertakings of the district’s 2025 $60 million bond. Work is expected to wrap up in time for next school year.
“We are creating a space that’s going to be able to grow and to change as our student needs grow and change, as the industries grow and change,” said Spring Hill Board of Education President April Horne. “This is just a super, super exciting step for us.”
Other projects already underway include additions to three elementary schools, HVAC improvements and roof replacements.
“This [CTE expansion] is more than just the brick and mortar that you’re going to see,” said Assistant Superintendent Joshua Robinson. “It’s about building opportunities for students beyond what we can even imagine. This is a space that’s going to allow them to work with their hands, to do real-world learning, to work in settings like professionals do.”
With the construction at the high school underway, the back parking lot is closed. Teachers and students are expected to park in front of the building during the year, though school traffic will not see much of an effect at the start and end of each school day.
“We’re going to have some growing pains as we lose a parking lot,” said Horne, expressing gratitude to students and staff for their patience and flexibility with the changes.
The road going past the construction and around back will open during athletic events for people to park in the lower parking lot, on the southeast side of the high school, said the district’s Executive Director of Operations Marc Williams.
Access to the southeast parking lot, which goes along the northeast side down south past the construction, will remain closed most of the time, said the district’s Executive Director of Operations Marc Williams. However, access to that lot will open for athletic events.
The expansion will house the Construction, Agriculture Science, Health Science, and Robotics/Engineering programs.
“We know that for our students, there’s no one definite path to success,” Robinson said. “Some of our students are going to go on to a four-year school, some of them are going to go to a community college, some of them are going to go into the military, and some are going to go straight into the workforce.
“The facility that we’re breaking ground on,” Robinson added, “it will change some kids’ lives.”
