OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Marion County Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Ben Whitehouse provided an operation update at the MCPS Board administration briefing and work session on April 16, 2026.
South Marion High School will open this August. The institution’s capacity, without a third floor–the board decided to pause on the third floor as a cost saving measure–would be 2,011 students, versus 2,711 with a third floor.
“Right now, our projection for opening day enrollment is 2,088, just over capacity,” said Whitehouse. “We saw a little bit of fluctuation early on when we started asking students who have the ability to remain at their current high school, if they wanted to stay. We had a good number of students that did say they were going to provide their own transportation and stay. In the last several weeks, especially with gas prices being the way that they are, we’ve gotten lots of phone calls from students who want to go back in the other direction. So, we have more students who said they were originally going to stay at West Port or Belleview, who now say they are going to be attending South Marion High School.”
South Marion High School is going to be opening at close to capacity in August, said Whitehouse. Part of the challenge as one looks at the surrounding schools, at Ross Prairie Elementary, nearly 200 students were added this year, with students also being added at Horizon and at Sunrise, and the school district knows that students are still moving into the area, and with the current growth that the district is experiencing, it’s very likely by the end of this first year, South Marion High School without that third floor, it would be more than likely that portables would have to be moved onto that campus to accommodate the current growth.
“Our request is to move up the third-floor completion in the timeline to be able to start on that this coming school year, as we finish the rest of the campus,” said Whitehouse. “We’ll talk a little about what that looks like and potential funding opportunities to make that happen.”
The price of progress
The construction itself is estimated at just under $10 million, said Whitehouse. The design service, which the school district would have to start fairly quickly to be able to get to work on the third-floor next year, is roughly $600,000. The furniture, fixtures, equipment and site work would be about $1.5 million. The total cost for the third floor would be a little more than $12 million. It would be something that if the school district were to make the decision to move forward, they would have to do so very quickly.
An increase in construction costs would be one of the challenges the school district would face if they decided not to move forward with the construction of the third floor, said Whitehouse. The cost would be nearly twice as much if the construction was to occur later.
“We would have to rebid the project, that’s going to increase the timeline,” said Whitehouse. “But if we do end up moving portables, we’ve shared this in the past, each portable that we move to a school and hook up is roughly $100,000, so if you figure, it we needed and extra 10 portables for 10 classrooms for students after that first year, you’re looking at $1 million just in portable locations and hookups for portable buildings that we wouldn’t have to need if we had a third-floor, that would obviously detract from the beauty of a brand new high school, when you start adding on portables out onto a beautiful field that we have space for right now.”
The third-floor design is roughly 52,000 square feet of classroom space the school would have available, for dry/wet science labs and two chemistry labs, said Whitehouse.
“That second point is important because when the architect designed the school, the chemistry labs were designed on the third floor,” said Whitehouse. “We have no true chemistry labs. We have science classrooms on the second and first floors. We have no true chemistry labs that require different functionality including gas hookups that we can use on those lower two floors. We do have a workaround for this year, working with our science program specialists and facilities. We have a workaround temporary solution for this year, that will allow for us to still do some of our chemistry experiments that we need to in our traditional science classrooms. But ideally, if we’re going to have an advanced high school that has advanced level chemistry programs available, which we know South Marion will as a Cambridge School. Certainly, having access to true chemistry labs will be critical for us moving forward.”
Accommodating a growing populationÂ
The third floor will provide 25 classroom spaces or roughly 700 student stations, which would also provide ample room for future growth, said Whitehouse. In general conversation with the contractor, the third floor would be completed by the end of next school year, with the third floor ready to be open for the 2027-2028 school year.
“Looking at our certificate of participating, we can comfortably borrow about $120 million and still be able to make the debt service payment as a school district without putting us into an uncomfortable position,” said Whitehouse. “In looking at that, we talked internally about some of those other priority items that we’d like to propose for potential funding that we could do in that $120 million range that we’re not currently funding with sales tax at the moment, in the 10-year projection with the sales tax.”
One of those could be South Marion High School, which would be an easy way to get going with that third floor, said Whitehouse.
“I believe with South Marion, we need to go ahead and build out the third floor, I’m in full support of that,” said Dr. Allison Campbell, MCPS Board Member Dist. no. 1. “What I want to have is an extensive conversation of how we’re funding it. I completely support it. We need to move forward with it, and whatever needs to be done to make that happen. The funding conversation is what I’m ready to delve into.”
What is the timeline for votable action to move forward with this, and how will the project be funded were questions raised by MCPS Chair Dr. Sarah James.
If there’s consensus to move forward with the third floor, the first thing that would need to be addressed would be the design portion of the process, said Whitehouse.
Funding the project in a timely fashionÂ
The contractor would begin to work on the third floor in October, having finished out their existing project. The board would have to initiate conversation regarding COPS, Certificates of Participation, in the near future, if that’s the direction the board wants to take, said James.
Board member Nancy Thrower, Dist. no. 4, pointed out the school district has had financial impact from delays on South Marion High School.
“If we’re going to do this, it would definitely be my desire to get the number set, sooner than later,” said Thrower. “I’m bothered by the idea of having to continue to borrow money. But at the same time, I do agree with the need and the urgency.”
The contractor is familiar with the construction that’s happening, the layout of the building and what needs to take place, it’s the easiest route to go, to continue that work now, then try to come back and address it a couple of years from now, said Whitehouse.
“I concur with Mr. Whitehouse, this is a brand-new school, said Rev. Eric Cummings MCPS Board Member, Dist. no. 3. “We’re already going to be beyond capacity, and often times people say, ‘I’ll go back and do this later.’ And then when we go back and do it later, it really costs you a whole lot more to do it later, then to do it now, while we’re still there on the ground, on the campus and in the process of doing it. We know construction costs aren’t going down any time soon. I’m in favor of us moving forward. We do have to have the conversation about the funding. This is not something that we can kick down the road. and say we’ll do it three or four years from now. It needs to go ahead and get done now. In three or four years from now, even after we do this, we still may have to come back and have a conversation about portables and all those things because we’re still growing.”
MCPS Vice Chair Lori Conrad agreed with Campbell and Cummings and thought it would be wise to go forward at this time, citing the two new elementary schools in the district, one’s at capacity and one is rising every day.
“I think it’s wise for us, there’s a financial impact definitely, but we also have to consider the impact that it has on our students if we come back in a few years and disrupt the campus again,” said Conrad. “I think it’s wise to do it at this time.”
Making it happen
All of the indications from the growth data, which was covered in-depth during the Interlocal Agreement meeting on April 1, 2026, that this is where the growth is occurring in Marion County, said James.
“We can pay for it now, or we can spend more like $20 million in three years and do it then,” said James. “It would be in the best interest of the taxpayer, the reality is sales tax or COPS is probably how this is going to get paid for, one way or the other. Regardless, we’re going to be using taxpayer money, either to debt service that interest or use the sales tax and take away from other projects. We can either be good stewards and do it now or be not as good stewards and do it in a couple of years and spend 50 percent more. I agree, I think we need to move forward with it. We will look forward to you all updating us on how that funding will look. You hear from the board a unanimous agreement to move forward with doing out the third-floor shell.”