By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Hillsborough County high school graduation ceremonies are underway for the roughly 14,274 students leaving the school district’s 28 traditional high schools, as construction on the 29th high school, the district’s largest, nears completion in Wimauma.
According to the school district’s May 12 release of estimated graduation figures, 3,831 students were set to graduate from the six traditional high schools in south Hillsborough County. This number accounts for 26.8 percent of the 28-school total.
Sumner High in Balm/Riverview, alone, accounts for 836 graduates, the largest class in the county, with Newsome in Lithia coming in just six students shy of Sumner. Rounding out the south county numbers are Riverview (650 graduates), Lennard (570), East Bay (510) and Spoto (435).
Meanwhile, the six traditional high schools in east Hillsborough County account for another 3,315 graduates, or 23.22 percent of the 28-school total. The east county list includes Durant (640), Plant City (620), Strawberry Crest (610), Bloomingdale (544), Armwood (501) and Brandon (400).
Collectively, the six south county and six east county high schools account for 7,146 graduates, or 50.06 percent of the district’s 28-school total.
These figures give testament to the growth patterns that have given rise to the breakneck suburban sprawl that has forever changed the nature of most south and east Hillsborough County communities.
The oldest high schools in southeast Hillsborough County are named for the communities in which they reside (East Bay, Brandon and Plant City). Chartered in 1957, East Bay originally served students at the current site of Eisenhower Middle School, off Old Big Bend Road. The current East Bay High, next door to the middle school, opened in 1972.
That’s the year also that the current Brandon High School opened on Victoria Street, having originally opened in 1914 on the site that would go on to house McLane Middle School. Likewise, Plant City High opened in 1914 on Collins Street, and since 1972 has been in its current building off Alexander Street.
Enter the unprecedented population boom before the Great Recession, triggered by the collapse of the U.S. housing market that ran from December 2007 through June 2009. Roughly a decade earlier, Riverview High had opened in 1998, which followed the 1997 openings of both Walter L. Sickles High School in Odessa and Paul R. Wharton High School in the area known as New Tampa. Meanwhile, Durant High School in Plant City opened in 1995.
The late-1990s school building boom helped to relieve overcrowding, which had forced Bloomingdale, Gaither, Riverview and Sickles high schools to enroll students in double sessions. A decade earlier, Brandon High School had been on double sessions, looking at triple sessions, before Armwood High in Seffner opened in 1984, followed by Bloomingdale High in Valrico in 1987.
Fast forwarding to 2020, Sumner High opened months after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and 11 years after Strawberry Crest High School opened in Dover and George M. Steinbrenner High School opened in Lutz.
The 238,268-square-foot Sumner, the largest traditional high school to date, opened in 2022 to accommodate 2,905 students. A new classroom wing opened a year later to offset the prospect of double sessions.
To further relieve overcrowding in south Hillsborough County schools, construction advanced on a new high school in Wimauma, set to surpass Sumner as the district’s largest school. The 359,000-square-foot campus is set to accommodate 3,428 students.
Named posthumously for educator Aquilla J. Morgan, the high school is set to open in August at 1712 West Lake Drive, in time for the start of the 2025-26 school year. It’s built to accommodate roughly 3,500 students in grades 9-12.
Wimauma’s capacity is roughly 300 students fewer than the 3,831 seniors set to graduate this month from the six traditional high schools in south Hillsborough County.
Graduation dates for south county traditional high schools are May 21 (Newsome), May 22 (Sumner), May 23 (Riverview), May 25 (Lennard), May 27 (East Bay) and May 29 (Spoto). All traditional high school graduation ceremonies are at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa at 4800 U.S. Highway 301.
Students also were set to graduate from charter and schools of choice; Hillsborough Virtual K-12; six exceptional student education centers (including Eisenhower ESC in Gibsonton); adult education and technical colleges; and career acceleration academies (including the South County Career Acceleration Academy in Ruskin).
For more, visit www.hillsboroughschools.org/.