Seminole High School’s students head back to class Tuesday, Aug. 11, to a brand-new place to eat, part of a $57 million campus overhaul that won’t wrap up until 2027.
The new dining hall is one of the centerpieces of the project and among the first finished spaces students will use. Principal Alana Brown said students named the new cafeteria one of the things they were most excited about. The building runs 11,146 square feet, with a kitchen, serving line, cafeteria and food pantry, plus a 6,456-square-foot indoor dining room and an outdoor courtyard reworked to give the campus a collegiate feel.
The campus is ready for the first day.
Every area used for instruction and daily operations will be open, the district said, while construction zones stay securely fenced and closed to students and staff. No classes will start the year in temporary or relocated space.
The new front entrance will be freshly paved and painted, and staff will be stationed around campus Aug. 11 to direct traffic and help families find their way. School offices, which ran from a temporary site over the summer, are already back on campus.
The job, underway since March 2025, touches nearly every building on campus. Ajax Building Company is the contractor; Wannemacher Jensen Architects designed it; Erin Ellis is the district’s project coordinator.
Across 226,533 square feet, crews are demolishing five buildings, adding a new main entrance, reworking the parking lot and drop-off loop, replacing the campus electrical distribution and most of its water and sanitary lines, repairing roofs and threading new walkway canopies and a single paint scheme across the grounds.
The work is paid for through a mix of the district’s capital outlay and capital outlay and debt service funds. The district says the project is on schedule and within its guaranteed maximum price, with no change orders.
From here, the finish comes in stages.
Three buildings are due to be done around Thanksgiving and two more by March 2027, followed by four additional buildings. The final courtyard sitework starts after classes end in May 2027 and should wrap by the end of July.
The spending comes as Pinellas County schools shrink. Districtwide enrollment has fallen 16.8% since 2018-19, from about 100,985 students to 84,064 last year, the steepest percentage drop among Florida’s large districts, leaving tens of thousands of empty seats.
In February, the School Board voted to close Cross Bayou Elementary in Pinellas Park and Disston Academy in Gulfport, fold Bay Point’s elementary and middle schools into a single K-8 and expand Oldsmar Elementary into a K-8.
Officials, who blame falling birth rates and housing costs, have signaled a second, larger round of closures ahead.
Seminole is bucking that trend.
Its enrollment climbed to 1,305 this year from 1,248 a year ago, and the finished campus is estimated to hold about 1,783. The renovation has been part of the district’s long-term facilities plan since 2021, before the latest closure decisions.
Enrollment shifts force hard choices about some schools, the district said, but it must keep investing in safe, modern campuses that serve current and future students.
Brown says the renovation is a competitive edge.
“Today’s families are looking for schools that deliver on all fronts: rigorous academic programs, state-of-the-art facilities, and a vibrant culture where students can truly thrive,” she said. “Seminole High School is delivering exactly that.”
Brown said most questions from families have centered on timelines, safety and how daily operations are being managed.
Seminole opened in 1962 as the first air-conditioned high school in Pinellas County. Its last major remodeling was in 1996.
Beyond the cafeteria, the project includes:
• New vertical fan coil units in place of every ceiling-mounted HVAC unit ventilator, plus a replacement chiller nearing the end of its life
• Classroom refreshes: fresh paint, ceiling tiles, lighting and roller shades, safety film on exterior windows, and interactive projectors replacing the old smartboards
• New ceilings, lighting, flooring and paint in the hallways and media center, with some lockers pulled out
• A new vestibule and a stage and performance space for band and chorus in the music building
• The arts classroom moving into the remodeled east dining room, and renovated restrooms campus-wide
• A redesigned front entrance and reworked drop-off to ease traffic, with a possible remodel of the front office, administration building and guidance suite depending on the final design
• Full security-camera coverage and demolition of buildings 9 and 11 through 14
Crews are also weighing new lighting for the auditorium and gymnasium and a possible re-coating of the campus water and sanitary lines.