By Kyle Coppola
New Fruitland Park Elementary School Construction Making Swift Progress
The new Fruitland Park Elementary school, located on the corner of Olive Avenue and Urick Street, is under construction. The teams building the school are making swift progress and the walls of the structure are already up. The two-story school will be the newest elementary school in Lake County when it opens in the first quarter of 2025.
(Most of the exterior walls of the school are now in place. Roofing will be installed soon.)
“We are so excited to finish this beautiful school for Fruitland Park,” Lake County School Board member Tyler Brandeburg says. “The original campus is approximately 75 years old, and this new site will provide us the opportunity to build a state-of-the-art campus with additional student capacity and resources to help our kids learn and grow. The job is currently on schedule, and our construction partners are committed to getting this campus open for the start of the second semester of this school year in January.”
For those wondering what the fate of the former Fruitland Park Elementary School are, the building will be put to good use.
“Beverly Shores Elementary School will be completely renovated and modernized once the new Fruitland Park Elementary campus is completed,” Tyler says. “The plan is for the students at BSE to shift to the old Fruitland Park Elementary campus for the 2024-2025 school year and then move into the renovated Beverly Shores Elementary School for the 2025-2026 school year. After that project, we haven’t decided yet what the next chapter looks like for the old Fruitland Park Elementary.”
(This wide shot does the school no justice but the size of the school is impressive. This school has been needed for a long time and will replace the current 75 year-old school located just off West Miller Street.)
The new Fruitland Park Elementary School campus will house all administrative offices, classrooms, cafeteria, and enrichment spaces, with VPK and kindergarten classes. Other features include an outdoor pavilion with restrooms for physical education classes, outdoor basketball courts, and a large soccer field.
Considerable progress has been made in just two months. In April, the exterior of the building began going up, but now just about the entire school has been built. Unlike the current Fruitland Park Elementary school, where children need to leave instructional areas during class time and many have to go into modular units, the new school will have permanent classrooms.
(A sign out front with a rendering of what the final buildout of the Fruitland Park Elementary school will look like.)
This permanent elementary school structure is a transition from the 14 modular class units, providing a safer and more secure environment for the students. Inclusivity is also a priority with the new school. Designated spaces for ESE instructional support classrooms and accommodations for itinerant staff working with students with specialized needs will be a big help.
For more information about the new Fruitland Park Elementary School campus and other developments in Lake County Schools, please visit the Lake County Schools website at lake.k12.fl.us.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
