By Kyle Coppola
Leesburg’s Beverly Shores Elementary School Will Close For Renovations
The fall 2025 school year will be the last at the current iteration of Beverly Shores Elementary School. Lake County Schools has indicated that the school will close down for the 2025-2026 school year as Lake County seeks to replace older buildings from the 1960s and portables which have expanded the capacity of the school.
“We plan to replace the older portions of the elementary school with new sections while increasing the capacity of the school,” says Kelly Randall, who is the Lake County Executive Director of Facilities & Planning.
(Many of the older 1960s structures and portable units located in the rear of the campus will be replaced and expanded upon to add further capacity to the school.)
Children who are currently attending Beverly Shores will continue to do so until the new Fruitland Park Elementary School opens. Children from the old Fruitland Park Elementary School will attend the new school when it opens in early 2025. Old Fruitland Park Elementary will get one final year of usage as it will house Beverly Shores Elementary students for the 2025-2026 school year.
(This arial shot shows the old 1960s buildings in the center of the school and portable units in the rear which are slated to be replaced.)
Once Fruitland Park Elementary School has concluded its 2026 spring school year, students will then return to the newly renovated Beverly Shores Elementary for 2026. Plans for the old Fruitland Park Elementary school have not yet been announced. “We will evaluate what to do with the old Fruitland Park Elementary site in the future. For now, this remains the plan,” says Kelly Randall.
While we don’t know what will become of the old Fruitland Park Elementary school, I have heard community members pitch ideas about a community center, apartments, and other uses. Just what will become of the site is unknown, but it is a large plot of land that I am sure the county will put to good use.
As for the Beverly Shores project, you can expect more to be announced in the coming months.
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.
