When it comes to completing referendum projects without 
interrupting school, it takes a coordinated effort between our district’s operations team, school staff, architects, and construction crews.
At Westchase Elementary School, the work has begun on a $3 million partial A/C replacement project. If you drive by, you may just see Principal Elise Suarez checking out the work in her sharp-looking pink hard hat.
“JE Dunn Construction has been absolutely amazing to work with— Chris Panarelli and Jeff DeRocker keep me involved and informed every step of the way, and we have truly been partners in the project,” said Principal Suarez.
When the start date was moved up, due to the pandemic, coordination began for all staff to be out of the school within a week, including student pickup of materials to ensure the building was safe to start construction. Crews made the school accessible for the administration to end the school year on campus to assist families with eLearning before vacating for construction.
“Our Westchase community is thrilled to have this project being completed for our students. I cannot speak more highly of how the process has gone,” expressed Principal Suarez.
Thanks to the taxpayers of Hillsborough County, our district has invested more than $121,000,000 to address essential needs in our schools, including air conditioning, aging roofs, classroom technology, and safety & security improvements.
This summer, twenty-six of our schools will be having major air conditioning work done while students and staff are out, with Leto High School being one of the largest projects to date—a $13.8 million project budget.
Summer 2020 AC Projects in the works:
Click here to view a list of the latest referendum projects in progress and completed.
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