The sparkling-new $44.6 million Pleasant Grove Elementary campus at 10789 Sorrento Road in Pensacola is getting its final touches for the 500-plus K-5 students starting school there this fall.
It will be the first brand-new school to open in Escambia County since 2018 and is expected to be a showstopper.
Built atop a 25-acre property surrounded by picturesque wetlands lined with birds chipping, insects buzzing and the roar of the Blue Angels soaring overhead — there is plenty to see through the windows of Pleasant Grove Elementary School.
The new school not only provides a more modern learning experience for students, complete with a STEM lab, music room, performance stage, media center and green room, but relieves overcrowding at the surrounding Blue Angel and Hellen Caro elementary schools.
Details that make Pleasant Grove shine:Four features of the new Pleasant Grove Elementary, ECSD’s first new school since 2018
Plans for Myrtle Grove school ongoing:Myrtle Grove Elementary is coming down and won’t be rebuilt until 2025. What happens now?
“We are delighted with the way the new Pleasant Grove turned out,” Director of Facilities Planning Keith Wasdin said. “The design team and general contractor knocked it out of the park with this facility. It is definitely a place where employees will want to work and students will want to learn. We can’t wait for the students to arrive and experience their new 21st century learning environment.”
Built to accommodate 801 students, right now the school currently has over 500 students set to start this fall, according to Wasdin.
“They (Pleasant Grove) have academically always been right up there at the top,” Fetsko said. “The purpose was that the school was unable to expand, they were landlocked. The old school had the cemetery in the front and the bayou in the back, and there was no room to expand anywhere … this school, if they would ever need to expand, there’s still acreage that’s not being used.”
The completion of the new school is evidence of the taxpayers’ half-cent sales tax dollars at work, according to Fetsko. The tax was first implemented in 1998 and has been extended several times since, bringing in over $300 million for the district. This has been specifically important in recent years as state budgets for the school district capital projects have diminished drastically.
“We wouldn’t even be able to keep it up with the maintenance on buildings if we had to rely solely on that capital money,” Fetsko said. “We would have to take money out of the general fund, which we’ve been trying to use for salaries and benefits for employees.”
“I just hope that the public realizes what a benefit that half-cent tax is to the schools and the school district,” Fetsko added.
The new school is also intended to be an asset for military families. After a recent zoning change, all children living on the Naval Air Station Pensacola will be automatically zoned for the brand-new school.
When stepping inside the new and improved Pleasant Grove Elementary, students are met with splashes of blue, green and orange painting the way to their classrooms.
The cheerful colors not only create a fun environment for learning but help with “wayfinding,” said Wasdin. The change of color helps students navigate where they are inside of the building and acclimate themselves.
Some of the main gathering spaces inside of the building, like the cafeteria and media center, are lined with graphics and imagery encouraging students to “think outside of the box” and create.
The flexible seating inside of the classrooms promote innovation, with chairs on wheels, rockers and high-top stools that allow students to move around and collaborate with others.
The classrooms also have personal restrooms to minimize distractions, disruptions and lost class time in the hallways.
The covered “play buildings” allow for students to let off steam, even on a rainy day, with room for scootering, bouncing or tossing a ball. The outdoor play areas, with a sponge-like turf bottoms, give students a safe place to play outdoors on the nicer weather days.
Despite being designed with playfulness, Wasdin said safety was built into every corner of the school’s design plans.
Due to the district’s Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) certification, the building was able to be built preventatively for worst case scenarios.
As far as efficiency goes, new technology in the modernized buildings help the school district save on expenses in the long run.
“You really are able to maintain what you need with heat and air at a fraction of the cost that you do in the older buildings,” Fetsko said.
Designs for the school have been about seven years in the making with a lot of time and preparation on the district’s end, so those part of the project were glad to see the school get off the ground.
However, the work isn’t slowing down for the district any time soon, as it is preparing to also rebuild the Myrtle Grove Elementary School to be ready for students by 2025.
“This (Pleasant Grove) is going to be good for the kids, good the teachers, good for the community, and I think it’s important for the public to know that the resources from the half cent sales tax are being wisely and justly used,” Fetsko said.
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