Marion County school officials will look to enter a contract with a local construction company to develop a $50 million elementary school that will replace two others in Belleview.
The Marion County School Board is scheduled to vote on a major architectural and facilities recommendation during its regular meeting on Tuesday, July 14, that will pave the way for the brand new campus in Belleview. The property for the new school is situated at the intersection of SE Highway 484 and SE 57th Avenue.
During its regular meeting, the board will evaluate a professional services recommendation to select the primary construction manager tasked with completely replacing Belleview Elementary School and combining it with Belleview-Santos Elementary School onto a single, consolidated footprint.
District staff are requesting authorization to enter into formal contract negotiations with Ausley Construction Co., LLC, which emerged as the top-ranked firm following a rigorous Request for Qualifications evaluation process.
According to records, Ausley Construction secured the number-one spot with a final committee score of 98.93 out of 100. The firm beat out three other major competitors: The A.D. Morgan Corporation, which finished second with a score of 94.50; D.E. Scorpio Corporation, which finished third at 85.71; and Charles Perry Partners Inc., which ranked fourth with a score of 90.86.
If the board approves the selection on Tuesday, district officials will have a 30-day window to negotiate a basic services contract before presenting the final agreement back to the board for a separate, secondary approval.
The consolidation project aims to construct a state-of-the-art, two-story elementary school building spanning approximately 127,000 square feet on a 14.98-acre lot. The facility will feature a 950-student station capacity, an integrated media center, a cafeteria equipped with a performance stage, and a modern administration suite housing guidance offices and an on-site clinic.
According to the Facilities Department’s project specifications, the design is a direct architectural re-use of the successful prototype layout currently utilized by the district for Ross Prairie and Winding Oaks Elementary Schools. Both of those schools welcomed students for the first time at the beginning of the 2025 school year.
The total financial scope of the new development relies on a multi-million dollar multi-tiered budget. That includes $47 million earmarked for the new building construction and extensive site work, which accounts for a new central energy plant, parent drop-off loops, bus loops, playgrounds, and specialized physical education fields.
An additional $3.6 million is designated to completely renovate two existing 9,000-square-foot buildings on the property that will remain standing to provide 320 of the student stations.
Finally, $1 million is allocated to fund preparatory upgrades at the old Lake Weir Middle School campus, which will serve as a temporary “swing school” to house students and staff during the height of construction.
The master schedule outlines an aggressive multi-year timeline designed to minimize disruptions to active learning. Following the completion of final bid and permitting documents later this winter, early construction is slated to begin in January 2027 on the campus’s energy plant and food service facilities while the school remains occupied.
In June and July 2027, the district will coordinate the temporary relocation of all staff, equipment, and students to the old Lake Weir Middle School site, allowing crews to safely demolish older structures on the main property.
Full-scale construction and structural renovations will then run uninterrupted through June 2028, with a hard completion target set for July 2028 to ensure the new combined school is fully operational for the start of the 2028-2029 academic year.
What are your thoughts on combining Belleview Elementary and Belleview-Santos Elementary into a single, brand-new campus? Share your perspective in a comment below or write a letter to the editor.