JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Something fresh is cooking inside Mandarin High School, something that smells like progress to the leaders of the school district.
“We’ve created real college and career pathways. And Mandarin is the newest of those,” said Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier, during a ribbon-cutting for a new wing of the high school.
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The new addition to the high school includes eight regular classrooms, as well as a mock hospital room and a large kitchen, both of which are serving as medical and culinary classrooms for students.
“Everything is new and nice. It’s so much better, and it’s not outdated. And we really get to learn the new techniques on it,” said Hannah Sharp, a Mandarin High School senior hoping to pursue a medical career.
DCPS said the $47 million project was funded through the half-cent sales tax and started construction last year. The district tells Action News Jax its new medical and culinary labs are teaching 690 students, divided up between the two programs. 20 old portable classrooms were also removed from the school as part of the project.
“I feel privileged to be part of it,” said school board member Melody Bolduc, who has two kids in the school’s culinary program, “it’s just electric for our kids to actually be in the buildings that everybody envisioned.”
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As Mandarin High School gets its new classrooms, the school district has a list of new school openings and constructions planned over the next five years. Those include six school openings between now and 2030, as well as four school constructions set to finish before 2035. All of it is part of the district’s “Master Facilities Plan” approved in October of last year, which provides somewhat of a road map for the projects planned over the next 15 years.
“It’s so exciting, because, in so many ways, we have so much more work to do,” said Dr. Bernier.
As the district works toward its future, the students at Mandarin High School hope their new classes will make their futures brighter.
“It’s very exciting, very life-changing,” Sharp said.
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