By LINDA CHION KENNEY
The groundbreaking for a school like no other in Hillsborough County took place last week in Wimauma, with tractors clearing dirt for the three-story campus set to accommodate 3,428 students.
“Welcome to the groundbreaking of what is surely going to be more than a high school,” said Van Ayers, Hillsborough’s newly appointed interim superintendent. “This will be a state-of-the-art center point in this community.”
From left, Chris Farkas, Hillsborough’s deputy superintendent for operations; school board members Lynn Gray, Henry “Shake” Washington, Patricia “Patti” Rendon and Stacy Hahn; Interim Superintendent Van Ayres; and Nadia Combs, school board chair
Design rendering for High School UUU. The two green spots to the left are for the future elementary and future middle schools.
An artist’s rendering for the outside of the planned gymnasium for “High School UUU”
Known as High School UUU until it is officially named, the $176 million, multi-building, 359,000-square-foot campus is slated to open in time for the start of the 2025-26 school year, just south of Sun City Boulevard off West Lake Drive. Situated on an 87-acre greenfield site, plans call for a new elementary school and a new middle school to be built there as well, with all three schools served by a central energy plant.
High School UUU will serve the growing and emerging communities in and about Wimauma. School officials say it will relieve overcrowding at Earl J. Lennard High School in Ruskin and Jule F. Sumner High School in Balm/Riverview.
The $75 million, 238,268- square-foot Sumner campus opened in 2020 as Hillsborough’s largest school, built to accommodate 2,905 students. To avoid double sessions, Sumner in January 2023 opened a 25-classroom wing, as enrollment numbers surged to 3,500 and beyond.
Van Ayres, Hillsborough’s newly appointed interim superintendent, at the Aug. 3 groundbreaking for the not-yet-named high school in Wimauma
Artist rendering for the two-story “High School UUU” gymnasiu.
For sure, the Balm/Riverview and Wimauma areas of south Hillsborough County rank among Hillsborough’s fastest-growing neighborhoods, with new subdivisions and apartments seemingly taking shape in the blink of an eye.
At the Aug. 3 groundbreaking, Ayres spoke to the breakneck growth necessitating the three schools planned for land adjacent to one such development, Southshore Bay by Metro Places.
“Families are moving into this area in enormous numbers,” Ayres said, “and we are here to accommodate them with the best education, best opportunities, best advancement and best technology possible.”
High School UUU highlights include a two-story media center, two-story gymnasium (with seating for 3,400), and a 973-seat theater/auditorium (complete with an orchestra pit). Also on tap are an automotive lab; culinary lab; JROTC labs; digital, 2-D and 3-D art labs; and a lab for EA Sports, a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games.
Plans call for 142 classrooms and a synthetic turf multi-sport playing field and stadium that will seat 3,500 spectators. Also outside, a practice football field, a softball field (with seating for 300), a baseball field and press box (with seating for 505), track-and-field facilities, and basketball and tennis courts.
An artist’s rendering for an inside view of “High School UUU”
Site enhancements include five retention ponds, a driver’s education practice lot, eight electric-vehicle charging stations and parking spots for students (548), staff (189) and visitors (42).
Among the dignitaries present at the groundbreaking was school board member Patricia “Patti” Rendon, whose District 4 seat borders Pasco, Polk and Manatee counties and includes Wimauma. “We need to build a high school out here,” she said, “and with such a state-of the-art high school, it’s a generational game-changer.”
Jose Gomez is an associate with Harvard Jolly PBK, a full-service architectural firm specializing in educational design. Allen Green II is co-founder and managing director of Envision, a minority-owned business working since 2016 with The Beck Group, a design-build firm. Beck/Envision is the construction manager for High School UUU.
Green said at the groundbreaking it was the first time he met Ayres, who he then realized was the son of Nuri Ayres, his principal at Sickles High School in Odessa. Upon graduation, Green went straight to work, as a flooring installer.
“Looking back, I see how those foundational moments, those words of encouragement I was getting from my teachers and coaches, they really impacted me,” Allen said. “It’s like drops that fill a bucket. You don’t know where you’re headed, you just keep pressing, you just keep walking forward and the dots begin to connect.”
Linda Chion Kenney photos
Shovels in hand as onlookers take note at the Aug. 3 groundbreaking for “High School UUU” in Wimauma
For Gomez, those dots started as the son of a migrant family that moved to Wimauma in 1993. With a large family still living in Wimauma, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and a niece and nephew who will attend High School UUU when it’s time, “it would be an understatement if I didn’t take this project very personally,” Gomez said. “It excites me it’s going into Wimauma, my home, the same home that shaped me to become the person I am today.”
According to Gomez, Wimauma is a close-knit community, which influenced the school’s design. For example, Gomez said, the central courtyard that connects buildings gives students a place “to gather and interact with each other, have their lunch, catch up in between classes and even display the work they create in art classes.”
Speakers at the podium Aug. 3 included also Chris Farkas, Hillsborough’s deputy superintendent for operations, and Frank Sepcic, vice president at Harvard Jolly PBK, a full-service architectural firm specializing in educational design.
Harvard Jolly Architecture, which in May entered into a partnership with PBK, has worked on Hillsborough school district projects for more than 40 years, including Sumner and Blake High School in Tampa.
Ryan Toth, The Beck Group’s regional director for Florida, said Blake, built in the mid-1990’s, was the first Beck project for Hillsborough County public schools. Some 30 years later, Toth said, High School UUU will be the 11th school built in partnership with Hillsborough public schools.
In this business, “there’s a lot more profitable things that we can do, than to build schools,” Toth said. “But for us, there’s not many more meaningful things that you can do than to put your time and effort, care and concern, into public schools. We feel that very deeply.”