HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Students are out of class for summer break, but construction work at schools in Hillsborough County is just getting started.
“Two months from now, you’ll come back and see something that’s completely different from where it is right now,” said Chris Farkas, Deputy Superintendent of Hillsborough County Schools.
This year’s summer projects are getting underway for Hillsborough County Schools, a total of about $102 million in repairs, renovations, and other improvements all funded by the halfpenny sales tax.
To break it down: about $85 million is in HVAC repair and replacements, while almost $17 million will be invested in maintenance projects, including new playgrounds, track repairs, and other improvements.
ABC Action News got a look at some of that work being done at Brandon High School.
“We’ve got a brand-new turf field that’s going out back on the football field, but here internally, we’ve got a whole HVAC renovation where they go through, replace the chillers, the ducts that go along with it to make sure that they’ve got when the kids come back in August, it’s a brand new facility with reliable new air conditioning equipment,” said Farkas.
The school district said it’s using referendum funds on major projects at 14 school sites this summer, which it says brings the total investment so far to nearly $742 million since that referendum passed in 2018.
A citizen oversight committee oversees that spending, with members adding that they provide confidence and transparency.
“We can tell you from the first dollar that came in, to the last dollar that has been spent since the beginning,” said committee member Jose Valiente.
So as the fixes go in, school leaders know it’ll all come back to their students. The first day back to school for students in Hillsborough County is August 12.
“As we know in Florida, AC is life at the end of the day, so the fact that we’ll have a constant temperature going on is just going to make things more conducive to learning,” said Dr. Jeremy Klein, the principal of Brandon High School.
