Gadsden County K-8 school construction in full swing one year after groundbreaking

GADSDEN COUNTY, Fla. (WCTV) - This week marks one year since the Gadsden County School District broke ground on its new $60 million K-8 school building.

The school will be located on the grounds of James A. Shanks Middle School and will combine roughly 1,600 students from Gadsden Elementary Magnet School, George W. Munroe, Stewart Street and Shanks Middle.

Gadsden County parent Jennifer McGhee said the new school building is “much needed.”

“Whatever is best for the children is what I’m looking at. Whatever’s going to enhance their learning abilities. Whatever’s going to make them be successful in life,” McGhee said.

The new K-8 school building was initially expected to be completed for the 2026-2027 school year. However, Superintendent Elijah Key said there were some delays, pushing the completion date to the fall of 2027.

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Key says he wants to make sure the community is part of the process in building the new school.

“Start getting them involved in the process, because we’re going to have to look at renaming the school as well as school colors and everything,” he said.

Since the start of construction, two buildings on the property near Shanks Middle School have been demolished.

Students will remain at Shanks during the current school year, according to Key. Next year, he said, students will potentially have to be relocated to help expedite the process of constructing the new school.

“We are absolutely excited to get them out of our outdated buildings and into an environment that is very conducive to learning,” the superintendent said. “We do know that building this K-8 school and getting our students into the state-of-the-art building will enhance the education of our students, and we expect the learning to increase.”

As for the other school buildings, Key said Stewart Street will be repurposed as an education center, while George W. Munroe will be demolished.

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