CARROLLWOOD, Fla. — It's the largest renovation in Carrollwood Day School history.
The Center for Innovation hopes to be open in September and will feature more than 40,000 sq. ft. for student use.
A student union, dining hall and multi-use areas will lead the campus into its next steps.
A renovation will also take place at the main building to allow for large classrooms, collaborative learning spaces, music room and interactive breakout spaces.
For incoming freshmen, the transformation is exciting.
Jago Stokes says, "We're really excited. We've all been talking about the Student Union, the entrepreneurship, the new classes, the glass bridge, and it's a personal thing for us. Like we've signed, we've signed the walls, and we're gonna be first-class going up through all four years of high school. And we're proud to be going to a school that's not stagnant. We're always growing."
Carrollwood Day School has an incredible entrepreneurship program through its inquiry-based learning. The program also teaches students engineering, computer science, etc. The school tells us that many of their students from these programs go on to be doctors, neuroscientists and excel in engineering.
Sara Rubenstein, Head of Carrollwood Day School says, "So, all of that is going to be housed in this beautiful facility, as well as a student union, really a new heart of our campus, where students will come to eat lunch together to collaborate to have club meetings where parent groups can organize. So lots of exciting stuff will be happening in this building."
A September 1 target date to open may seem lofty, but Rubenstein says they're eager to make it happen.
"So, a pandemic wasn't gonna stop us. We took an 18-month project and really worked with our constructors and our architecture team to condense it to nine months because we knew if we had waited, our students wouldn't have this facility for a whole other year. And we're just so eager to get them into these classrooms and give our teachers these spaces that we just didn't want to wait."
"To me, it's so important because it really signifies and solidifies Carrollwood Day Schools' place as the destination school for entrepreneurial and progressive education in Tampa Bay. So if you want a school that's responding to the needs of the future for our students, that's what we are. And this building to me stands for that."
Carrollwood Day School is a non-profit so much of this project was based on community support.
"They've all made this dream a reality, and we couldn't be more grateful and excited for next year," says Rubenstein.
