Alivia Stevenson, 12, stood with her choir classmates on the steps to the stage of Southwest Middle School’s new cafeteria and sang a capella as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the completely modernized Lakeland school’s $55 million transformation.
“It’s better, bigger, cleaner, more air conditioning,” Stevenson, a sixth grader, said following the ceremony. She added that she is grateful “to be in a clean environment,” which allows her “to think better.”
Like many adults at the ceremony, she wanted to thank those who made it possible — Polk County taxpayers, who renewed a half-cent sales tax in 2018 to help cover the costs of new school construction. Former School Board Chairman Lynn Wilson spearheaded that effort. Impact fees also funded the transformation.
“We have the ability every single day to change the trajectory of a child’s life,” said Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Fred Heid. “But we need an educational environment that will allow that to sustain over time. And I’m very proud of the work that went into this facility to ensure that we honor, recognize and maintain the legacy and the history of those who came before the students who are here today.”
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Southwest was founded in 1956 as a junior high school along West Edgewood Drive and Eden Parkway. It became a middle school for grades 6-8 in 1992. As Lakeland’s population has grown, the one-story buildings began bursting at the seams.
The construction had been projected to be completed by February, but architects Straughn Trout and contractors A.D. Morgan and DuCon finished two months early and on-budget. Crews worked seven days a week, 10 hours a day to finish.
Administrators and staff moved furniture, books and supplies into the three new two-story buildings over the winter break to be ready for teachers’ return on Jan. 2 and students’ return on Jan. 4.
The new campus, built in part on old athletic fields, includes a centrally located courtyard, with covered outdoor seating by the cafeteria. The buildings incorporate the school’s original colors of red and white, along with its Seminole mascot, to preserve its history in the community. In addition, the cafeteria has been built to federal codes, which will enable the cafeteria to serve as an emergency shelter for people during a hurricane.
Sabrina Terry is in her 12th year of education, four of which have been at Southwest, where she teaches choir and guitar. She called the new campus “amazing.”
“Before we just had the one room and an office down the hall,” she said of the music wing. “Now there’s a whole suite. We have practice rooms and even the band has that, too. The amount of space we have is catered to growing the program.”
The school’s pre-culinary program has gleaming new appliances, with some microwaves still in boxes. The middle school also offers pre-agriculture, pre-media design and Science Technology Engineering Art and Math (STEAM) academies. Those pre-academies feed into high school programs, which allow students to graduate with certifications to obtain jobs and/or college credits.
Southwest also offers a robust music program, including band, choir and guitar, which was on full display Monday evening.
Several alumni — both students and faculty — were in attendance at Monday evening’s ceremony, including Regional Assistant Superintendent Beth Nave, whose father was in one of the first classes to attend the school in 1956, and Polk County Public Schools Director of Leadership Development John Hill, who attended from 1971-1974. He admitted to getting into some trouble.
“In 9th grade at Southwest Junior High, if someone had told me I was going to be an educator, I would’ve started laughing, the teachers would’ve laughed, my peers would have laughed,” Hill said. But he remembered one teacher who believed in him. “Joel Whiddon, assistant football coach, told me I was going to be a principal.”
Hill looked around at the cafeteria and out the windows at the new buildings, that have been in use for two months.
“Look what has been accomplished through everyone’s work and dedication to children,” he said.
Hill explained that several years ago, then-Principal Sylvia Oldham-Jackson asked him to come to the school when he was an assistant superintendent and walked him around, showing him the aging, one-story structure and asking him to help. Southwest immediately went on a list of schools to be transformed.
Hill said he found his old locker, which he was hoping to take home once the old buildings have been dismantled and demolished.
In fact, many alumni have reached out to LkldNow to ask if bricks from the old school might be available for purchase.
PCPS spokesman Jason Geary said Southwest Middle is planning to sell about 250 bricks from the old campus as a fundraiser.
“The school plans to sell the bricks with a name plaque for $25 each,” Geary said. “They will launch the fundraiser after Spring Break.”
Demolition is scheduled to be completed by mid-April.
Once the choir and band ended their performances Monday evening, and the dignitaries spoke, including Mayor Pro Tem Stephanie Madden and School Board member Kay Fields, they gathered around current Principal Jason Looney to cut the ceremonial ribbon.
“Southwest Middle School students now have the opportunity to walk through these halls, feeling a sense of worth and purpose, knowing their community invested over $55 million into their education,” Madden said.
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