LYNN HAVEN — For students at one local charter school, this week not only brought the start of a new school year; it also meant they’d start at a brand new location.
North Bay Haven Charter Academy had been at a temporary location, a tiny campus on Balboa Avenue, but the charter academy’s middle and high school moved this school year to its new location off State 390 at Mill Bayou, near Deer Point Lake. The 40-acre campus is still under construction; however, a two-story classroom building was ready for 1,100 students by the start of the school year.
“It’s nice to finally be at the point where this is our growth,” said Principal Meredith Higgins, “because growing every year has been such a challenge with facilities expansion, the enrollment of new kids every year, just acclimating them to new schools.”
The charter school’s elementary counterpart is still located on Balboa Avenue. The old campus was “busting at the seams” in student population, Higgins said.
“We miss them because we worked together so closely for so long,” Higgins said. But, “it’s good for both of us to develop an identity as a school independent of one another.”
Plus, “it’s nice to have plenty of room,” she added.
For junior Ben Bradford, who has been at the school “from day one,” finally moving to the new location makes him feel he’s attending “a real school.”
“It always felt like over there we were still getting things together,” he said of the old location, noting portables were constantly being brought in. “Now, it feels like more of a real school, real activities.”
Bradford and his fellow junior class classmates had just wound up a morning assembly Friday where they were lectured about the seriousness of school and reminded about important milestones they should reach by the close of the school year.
“It’s a lot nicer than the other one was — no rodents, animals, surprises; the hallways are a lot bigger,” said junior Jesselyn Dudninsky. “It’s great. This is our new home.”
Although the school’s seventh, eighth, 11th and 12th grades do not have waiting lists, Higgins said she does not anticipate the school growing much larger than it is currently. There’s not much room to expand, she said.
However, the growth of the school is evident by the new faces in its student population, according to Ellis Thomas, a high school U.S. history and government teacher that’s been with the school since 2010.
“I’m seeing a lot of different kids that I’ve never seen before,” Thomas said, “which is good because those are kids who have never been exposed to the high expectations we have here.”
Changes
Aside of the obvious — a bayou that’s expected to catapult biological sciences instruction — the Mill Bayou location came with a number of general school improvements.
“We didn’t have bells at the old school,” Higgins said. “That’s a big change we’re all excited about.”
As the sound of the long bright tone rang throughout the campus Friday morning, students moved from place to place, including to the library and the personal lockers — both of which were not available at the old campus.
“We were right next to the wonderful Bay County Library,” Higgins said, “so we didn’t establish a library at the other school. So being out here, we needed to set up our library.”
Due to too few lockers, high school students were permitted to carry backpacks in the past. However, every student has a locker at the new location, so in about two weeks backpacks will no longer be permitted.
The gym, which is near completion, will be a multipurpose building, equipped with a stage, seating for 600 people and band and choir rooms. The purchase of land for a sports complex, located across the street, will be finalized by the end of the calendar year, Higgins said.
“We’ve been working for this since we began planning for the school back in 2009,” Higgins said of the new location. “It’s exciting.”