The Garden Elementary School Replacement project represents an exciting step forward for the community, with plans to replace the aging campus with a modern, state-of-the-art facility. Following a walkthrough by the Department of Education staff on October 17, 2022, it was determined that the school qualified for demolition due to significant damage from Hurricane Ian and its age. The existing campus, consisting of 751 student stations and 81,371 square feet of space spread across various buildings and portables, no longer meets the needs of the growing student population. The new school will be designed to accommodate approximately 950 students, alleviating overcrowding in surrounding schools and reducing the reliance on portable classrooms.
The replacement school will be a two-story, 130,000-square-foot facility featuring modern classrooms, a bigger parking lot, updated play areas, and secure fencing. One of the most notable features of the new campus will be the 2,840-foot car loop, designed to hold up to 142 cars in a single stack formation, which will help improve traffic flow during student drop-off and pick-up times. The project also includes a new 8-foot-high precast concrete fence between the school and residential properties to ensure privacy and safety.
Construction will take place in phases to minimize disruption to the active campus. Phase I will begin in the Summer of 2025, and the project is expected to be completed by July 2027.
In addition to the new school, Building 4 will be remodeled to serve as the Facilities office for Zone 5.
As a part of this process, current attendance boundaries for Garden Elementary will be adjusted to accommodate more students on the larger campus. This boundary adjustment will also help alleviate overcrowding at surrounding schools. Schools that could be impacted by this adjustment include Taylor Ranch Elementary School, Laurel Nokomis School, and Venice Middle School.
The first Boundary Advisory Committee meeting was held on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. at Garden Elementary School.
A Community Meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at Garden Elementary School. Additional public meetings will be held, and details can be found below.
These meetings provide opportunities to keep stakeholders informed of the process, receive input and feedback from the community for consideration, and answer questions the community may have relating to all aspects of this proposal.