A Miami-based charter company and a local Christian prep school are seeking permits for new campuses in Osceola County.
Mater Academy currently has more than a dozen campuses in the Miami-Dade area and is building its second Osceola school, Mater Palms Academy, in Kissimmee. The company filed construction plans last week with the South Florida Water Management District for a new K-8 campus in St. Cloud’s Narcoossee corridor.
Mater schools primarily serve minority students (97 percent) while more than 80 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced school lunches. The company has campuses that offer a variety of curricula, including STEM-focused schools, performing arts schools and even a Sports Leadership and Management Academy.
The St. Cloud school would be built in two phases on a 22-acre parcel on Nora Tyson Road, a few blocks east of the Narcoossee Road – U.S. 192 intersection, according to the the application. It’s across from Canopy Walk, a subdivision now in development by D.R. Horton, and just south of CalAtlantic Homes’ Lancaster Park.
Taylor Smith‘s Project Finance & Development Inc. in Jacksonville is providing the financial backing. Haskell is the design-build contractor, and Askey Hughey Inc. the civil engineer.
Osceola Christian Preparatory School also filed construction plans last week for a new campus — its fourth — on Pleasant Hill Road south of Cypress Parkway.
School spokeswoman Deanna Oxner told GrowthSpotter the prep school currently serves roughly 700 students in grades K-12 at its three campuses in Kissimmee, Poinciana and St. Cloud. The newest school would be designed to accommodate between 120 and 200 students.
The private, non-denominational school’s mission is to work with families in need, so most students are on scholarship.
“We help students who may be having difficulties in a traditional, lecture-based school,” Oxner said. “We work with students one-on-one to meet their needs individually.”
The new campus is scheduled to open in August 2018. B.Taylor & Associates filed the civil plans, which divide the project into two phases. Phase 1 comprises three buildings and a covered outdoor basketball court. The second phase includes a Pre-K building and an indoor gym.
Corporate Construction & Design is the general contractor.
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