Duval County (Florida) district officials are ready to start construction on an estimated $120 million project that would replace Ribault High School in Jacksonville with a next-generation facility financed largely by a voter-approved sales tax.
The Florida Times-Union reports that the new Ribault will be the first high school built since voters approved a half-penny sales tax in 2020 to fund most of a $1.9 billion master plan for updating and maintaining Duval County schools.
The original Ribault, which opened in 1957, is being torn down to make room for a 234,000-square-foot building that will accommodate 1,563 students.
The new school will have more than 40 classrooms, a 12,000-square-foot gym and a cafeteria designed for serving 650 students. The school will also have a half-dozen career and technical education areas equipped to train teens in fields including banking, aviation and robotics, nursing, culinary arts and digital audio production.
The school’s existing auditorium, fieldhouse and JROTC and music buildings will be left standing but will be gutted and remodeled.
The new building is scheduled to be completed in August 2025.
Until then, Ribault students will use space in Ribault Middle School, which stands on the same 61-acre tract that holds the high school campus and Sallye B. Mathis Elementary School. The reshuffling of students involves about 30 classroom trailers.
