By LINDA CHION KENNEY
The deadline is fast-approaching to name the largest public school ever constructed in Hillsborough County.
That would be the high school under construction in Wimauma, set to open for the 2025-26 school year, at 1712 West Lake Drive. The public has been invited to offer recommendations for naming the $176 million, multi-building, 359,000- square-foot campus, now known as “High School UUU.” It is set to accommodate nearly 3,500 students.
The deadline to submit name recommendations is Friday, Aug. 9. The final decision rests with the seven-member school board, which is slated to vote on the measure Thursday, Sept. 5.
A builder signs his name to the artist rendering of High School UUU in Wimauma.
The school sits on an 87-acre greenfield site set to house as well elementary and middle schools, scheduled to open in 2027 and 2028, respectively. The trio of schools will share a central energy plant, which will become operational with the high school’s opening.
The Wimauma school follows the 2020 debut of Jule F. Sumner High School in the Balm/Riverview area, the district’s first new school in 11 years. At the time, the 238,268-square-foot campus was the district’s largest school.
Unable to keep pace with the area’s growth as constructed, a new classroom wing opened at Sumner in January 2023. As unabated growth continues, the opening of the high school in Wimauma has been touted as a way to keep Sumner off double sessions.
As is the school district’s policy for all new high schools, the campus in Wimauma is set to open for grades 9 through 11. The 12th grade will be added for the 2026-27 school year.
When it opens, High School UUU in Wimauma will become the district’s 29th traditional high school, of which nine bear geographic names. That would be East Bay, Riverview, Bloomingdale, Brandon, Durant, Plant City, Plant and Tampa Bay Technical high schools, and Hillsborough High, the county’s oldest high school, said to have accepted students as early as 1882.
Another 17 high schools have been named for people who have been recognized for outstanding service, including Sumner in Balm, for south county settler and cattleman Jule F. Sumner; Lennard in Ruskin, for Riverview resident, and former superintendent Earl J. Lennard; Newsome in Lithia, for school board member and Plant City resident Joe E. Newsome; and Spoto in Riverview, for educator Richard C. Spoto.
Namesakes for high schools include as well people who served as U.S. president (Thomas Jefferson), superintendent (Walter L. Sickles), school district trustee (George D. Chamberlain ), board of public instruction (C. Leon King), school administrator (Paul R. Wharton) and educators (Braulio Alonso, Blanche Armwood, Howard W. Blake, Vivian Gaither, Ateo Phillip Leto and Thomas Richard Robinson). Also in the mix, N.Y. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and George S. Middleton, an African American mail carrier, businessman and civic leader.
A builder signs his name to the artist rendering of High School UUU in Wimauma.
Freedom High School, in New Tampa, opened in 2003, a year after Liberty Middle School opened in New Tampa. Both were named in recognition of the nation’s resilience after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Strawberry Crest High School in Dover sits on former strawberry fields and recognizes Plant City’s stature as the winter strawberry capital of the world.
As for whether the high school in Wimauma is named for a person, place or concept, that remains to be seen.
Names under consideration are to follow school board policy 7250. According to school officials, “school sites and facilities are to be named for individuals who have rendered outstanding public service to public education, for geographical locations, or groups and clubs as indicated.”
That means “elementary, middle and high schools can be named after U.S. presidents, school board members, educators, outstanding citizens and geographical locations.” Moreover, “an elected official proposed for a school name shall have left office for no less than five years, and no candidate for public office should be considered.”
Recommended names for High School UUU in Wimauma can be submitted online at www.bit.ly/HSUUU/.