Horizon West elementary school design unveiled

Relief for overcrowding at Water Spring Elementary School is on the way.

Orange County Public Schools officials met with community members Thursday, Feb. 20, to present the 30% design phase of the upcoming elementary school, Site 126 E-4. The school is expected to open in 2026. 

“The great thing about a 30% meeting is it really gives us the opportunity to get to know what your feelings are on the project and what you really kind of want or expect from the school; that’s why we do these meetings at this early stage,” said Andy Orrell, of Orange County Public Schools’ facilities communications. 

Anna Douglas, the District 4 representative from the Orange County School Board, was present for the meeting.

”I’m so excited for this new building,” she said. “I’ve been teaching for 25 years, and I’m a teacher at heart, so I’m excited for the new school.”

The new school will be located on 15 acres along Hartzog Road, perpendicular to Sunset Walk Drive and north of Nature Walk Drive. It also is being built near a future community park.

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There will be pedestrian access from Hartzog Road that leads to bike racks in the front entry. Bus access also will be off Hartzog Road leading to a bus loop for 21 buses. 

The car loop and parking will be accessible from Nature Walk Drive, which is south of the school. The parking lot will accommodate 150 parking spaces with 168 vehicles being able to fit in the car loop. 

The two-story elementary school will feature a single, secure point of entry at the main entrance, a media center, a multipurpose cafeteria, music room, art room, labs and two wings of classrooms. One of the labs will be a discovery STEM lab, located on the first floor of the school. 

The school, which has a construction budget of $38.6 million, is expected to have 834 student stations. 

On the southeast portion of the property, there is a dedicated area for future portables. 

Just past the future portables are the playfields. 

There will be a covered play area, as well as covered basketball courts, a courtyard with two green spaces and covered tot lot and youth lot closer to the school. 

The school also features sustainable building systems. It will be 10% more efficient for heating and cooling. It also will have high efficiency chillers with 15% in energy reduction, light colored roofs to reduce heat gain and improve energy performance, energy-efficient LED lighting, and Energy Star-rated equipment. 

Jordan Kager, of Schenkel Shultz, the architecture firm for the project, said the school will have water-saving toilets, faucets and fixtures. 

He said all classrooms will have daylighting and more than 75% of all spaces in the school will have daylighting. Throughout the building, there will be thermal-efficient windows and glazing. 

Throughout the site, there will be native and low-water plants to reduce water consumption. The stormwater design also is a low-impact design, Kager said. 

Orange County Public Schools will be going through designing, permitting and bidding of the project through May. Construction is expected to start in May and be completed in May 2026. From May 2026 to when school starts in August 2026, teachers and staff will be moving into the finished school.

Orrell said weeks ago, Orange County Public Schools reached out to the community with a survey to obtain ideas on what families wanted to see and expect from the school. 

Orrell shared the top recommendations from the community, which included an ease of traffic flow and clearly marked traffic patterns in the parking lot and surrounding streets; no portables; working air conditioners; modern facilities with plenty of room for the students; more parking and outdoor field areas; larger activity space outside for physical education, recess and after-school activities; and space for expansion.

“We are at the very, very early stages of this project, so some of them already have solutions,” Orrell said. “Some of them, we are discussing and trying to find solutions for.”

The most recommended expectation was space on campus. 

“Basically, you want to make sure that there is enough property for this building to be big enough for what you need to have it be here for not only the next five, 10 years but 25, 30 years,” Orrell said. “Growth also has to do with that.”

Orrell said the district is working with applicable partners to ensure traffic around the school will not be negatively impacted, or if it is affected, as least impacted as possible.

“We know that not only do we have to be in your community, you have to be in the community too, so we want to make sure that we are partners with you and that everything runs as smoothly as possible,” he said. 

Most questions from parents were regarding school enrollment. 

Orrell said although a different Orange County Public Schools department handles enrollment and zoning, the new elementary school will be pulling students from Water Spring and Panther Lake elementary schools to help relieve overcrowding at those schools.

Water Spring Elementary has a capacity of 725 students and is at 135% capacity. 

Orrell said OCPS will have community meetings to discuss enrollment as it gets closer to the school’s opening.