School district takes final preparatory steps before construction on new SW Marion high school
File photo: Nancy Thrower of the Marion County Public School Board, left, speaks as Lauren Debick of Marion County Public Schools, center, and Superintendent Dr. Diane Gullett, right, listen during the Technical Working Group meeting at Marion Technical Institute on East Fort King Street in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.
As the beginning of construction on the new southwest Marion County high school is fast approaching, the school district and county needed to first address concerns between the school’s project location and the neighboring county project for a future Interstate 75 flyover.
At a technical working group meeting on Sept. 13, staff from Marion County Public Schools, Marion County, the city of Ocala, and other local municipalities met to discuss a number of items in accordance with their interlocal agreement—the most pressing being the High School CCC project that is scheduled to begin construction in November.
The county granted the school district a special use permit for the property, which required them to provide a comprehensive site plan to the county before construction begins. The school district is continuing to work with the county to ensure that all standards are met and the school can begin construction as planned, said MCPS Director of Operations Barbara Dobbins.
“The site plans were submitted to the county with the note that they limit the review to the requirements as per Statues 1013.33 to the adequacy as it relates to environmental concerns, health, safety and welfare, and effects on adjacent property,” Dobbins said.
Certain standards and conditions of typical projects that the county would provide a special use permit for do not apply to the building of schools, as they would for a project like a strip mall, the district exemplified.
“Only the site plan was required for the cursory review, but we felt the entire civil set would give the county a better understanding of the entire scope,” said Dobbins.
Ahead of the submission of the site plan, the county expressed concerns that traffic from the school around drop-off and pick-up times might back up the surrounding road of Marion OaksManor, which will provide access for the school, said Assistant County Administrator Tracy Straub.
“Westport High School is a great example, where the parents are stopping and dropping kids off on the side of the road, and they’re stopping and picking up kids on the side of the road. It happens,” said Straub.
The county is in the preliminary stages of a project to extend Marion Oaks Manor to create a flyover for Interstate 75. Marion Oaks Manor will be four-laned and will be extended east to a flyover over I-75 to allow traffic to travel to the east side of the county. The project will span from Southwest 49th Avenue to County Road 475.
The district set out an ambitious timeline with the high school project, with the goal of opening in August of 2026 for the beginning of the school year. The project faced delays after controversy over which construction firm should be awarded the $120 million dollar contract for the school.
In April, a district selection committee chose Wharton–Smith Inc. as the winning bidder for the project. In the days and weeks following, competing firm Ausley Construction and School Board member Sarah James were accused of tampering with the procurement process by violating the “cone of silence” policy and issuing threats to school district staff, another board member, and Superintendent Diane Gullett. An external investigation by the GrayRobinson law firm substantiated the allegations. The contract was eventually awarded to Wharton-Smith in July.
The county asked the school district at the technical working group meeting not to officially set a date for the school’s groundbreaking until the site plan was reviewed, so as to not violate the special use permit.
“We hear your quickness of wanting to get things done, but we can’t operate and accommodate that if you’re not helping us by giving us what’s necessary,” said Commission Chair Michelle Stone.
Straub said that ordinarily the county would review site plans much earlier for a project beginning construction so soon, but that her team supports the school district’s timeline and doesn’t want to get in the way of it.
“We don’t want anybody pointing fingers at us as we’re pointing fingers back to each other. We don’t like that relationship. We want to get this done,” said Straub.
With the right-of-way for the Marion Oaks Manor project, the standard size for a four-lane road would be 120 feet. In preliminary designs, the county has discussed making the road 130 feet wide to allow there to be a turning lane to provide ease in accessing the high school, Straub said.
“What that 130 feet does for us, that allows us to give you all a turning lane that helps support getting people off of that four-lane major highway and getting into a nice turning movement that they can stack up and to get into the school. So that’s 130 feet impact on y’all,” Straub said.
Correction: A previous version of this article said that the school is anticipated to open in August of 2025. It has since been corrected to reflect the timeline of August 2026.