Suncoast High School opens a new state of the art facility

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. - The new Suncoast High School building is over 250,000 square feet and includes high tech features and a price tag of a little more than $91.5 million dollars.

"I think that it's beyond what was necessary," said Dr. Linda Cartlidge, principal at Suncoast High School.

Monday morning incoming freshman along with their parents had orientation and a chance to tour the new facility.

Groundbreaking for the school's new "replacement" site was on March 1, 2008. As a comparison to the old building, the new one has double the number of classrooms, a 684 seat cafeteria, a 4,000 seat stadium, solar panels from a $50,000 grant from FPL, an 863 seat theatre and each class room is equipped with an audio enhancement system.

Every teacher and student will have access to the school's virtual learning lab making the school global and connecting them to others around the world.

The principal said that movers and some staff members including herself worked the entire summer in order to be ready to open on the first day of school.

"We pretty much are ready to go. I mean there are certain pieces that probably need a little tweaking here and there missing this and missing that, said Cartlidge.

Dr. Cartlidge also says moving from one location to another has been a huge undertaking. As part of the move, they took different pieces of memorabilia from the school's previous site to add historical value to the new building.

"Can you imagine what we are going to achieve now? When we got a facility that matches my students, my teachers and my wonderful staff; so we're pretty excited about it," said Cartlidge.

School officials are anticipating heavy traffic in the area around the school for the next two months because of construction.

An official building dedication ceremony is set for February 25th.