- July 17, 2026
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While teachers have taken a well-deserved break over the summer months, Reginald L. Goff, Sr.'s team kicks productivity up a few notches.
Goff is the director of the Construction Services Department for the School District of Manatee County.
“Summer is the time where we have the most opportunities,’” he said. “The students are not on campus, and we want to take advantage of the ability to do what we need to do as quickly as we possibly can.”
The construction department is especially busy in East County this summer. Rangeland High School is being built from the ground up. Lake Manatee K-8 is expanding, and Lakewood Ranch High School is in the process of getting a new HVAC system.
Construction on the nearly 300,000-square-foot Rangeland High School started in January and is expected to cost $144 million.
The campus sits on approximately 85 acres at the southwest corner of Rangeland Parkway and Post Boulevard.
The high school will initially welcome about 1,070 ninth and 10th graders in August 2027. Eleventh grade will open in August 2028, and 12th grade will follow in August 2029.
Although the school will still be under construction at the start of the 2026-2027 school year, Goff said construction will be vertical by the first day of school in August. The walls for the classrooms and the cafeteria will be taking shape.
By July 2027, the classrooms, cafeteria, gymnasium and the administration and media center will be finished. By August 2027, the auditorium, ball fields, sports courts, track and parking lots will be finished just in time to welcome students.
The first day of school for over 1,000 students depends on timely construction. Goff called summer a “great accelerator.”
The school district sticks to its schedules by including construction contingencies in its contracts that cover unforeseen expenses that could otherwise delay construction.
On the other side of the contract, contractors don’t get paid if they’re not hitting their milestones.
“I don’t think we’ve had any schools that were late,” said Regina Thoma, executive director for School Support Services.
Designs for Rangeland High School follow the prototype for Parrish Community High School, which includes an auditorium that can hold over 700 people.
Jamie Carson, the director of communications for the school district, noted that the new auditoriums’ space and production value offer a “community theater feel.”
An expansion plan for Rangeland High School is mapped out and ready to go when enrollment demands it. The second two-story classroom wing will bring the student stations up to about 2,500.
Lake Manatee K-8 will have a new two-story classroom addition that will welcome its first class of sixth graders this August. Seventh grade will open in 2027, and eighth grade will open in 2028.
The eventual capacity will exceed 1,800 students.
Carson noted that phasing students into a new school provides a “smoother transition.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not the facility can handle it, it’s just a normal school process,” she said.
The gymnasium will also be complete by this fall.
The addition cost $17.4 million bringing the total cost of construction for the school up to $123 million.
After students, parents and teachers expressed concerns over the presence of mold in Lakewood Ranch High School, an approximately $1.6 million professional cleanup was completed in March.
Although the initial inspection found that mold was present, the report indicated that the levels among over 120 samples were so low that the air quality inside the school was better than the air quality outside.
While the issue resurfaced in 2025, Lakewood Ranch High School closed one building in 2017 due to visible mold.
Recent remediation efforts included air filter replacements throughout the school. The next step is to replace the entire HVAC system, including the underground supply lines and the ducts.
Goff said replacing the underground supply lines is the first step, which will cost about $6 million. Another $30 million is allotted for the above-ground work.
The underground work has begun, but the HVAC system needs a design first. Once the architects and engineers are chosen, a design will take about four months to complete.
Designs are needed to be sure the new system fits within the confines of the school. No major construction is required, but an equipment room could require a minor expansion.
The plan is to have underground work completed by fall 2027 and the aboveground work completed by fall 2028.
