Marion County Public Schools is set to turn dirt at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 7, for a new Lake Weir Middle School in Ocala, kicking off a roughly $62–63 million replacement for the district’s aging campus. The public is invited to the groundbreaking at the construction site, where officials say the project is planned to serve more than 1,400 students and be ready for the 2027 school year.
Project details
Construction manager Skanska reports it holds the contract to build the new school on a 30-acre greenfield site at 685 Oak Road in Ocala and describes the job as roughly a $62 million project. As reported by WFTV, the district is calling the new campus a three-story, 141,000-square-foot facility designed for more than 1,400 students, while Skanska’s project release puts the campus at about 156,000 square feet with 43 classrooms and new athletic fields. Skanska lists PBK as the project architect.
Budget, schedule and permitting
The school board signed off on a guaranteed maximum price of about $62.7 million at an Oct. 28, 2025, meeting, according to local reporting and board documents. Marion County Public Schools’ FastFacts notes that crews encountered protected species on the property, which led Skanska to request 75 extra days; the district bulletin explains that substantial completion was pushed to Aug. 6, 2027, to make room for required permits and relocations. 352Today reports on the GMP figures and construction timeline, while the district’s own update outlines the wildlife permitting issues.
Environmental and procurement concerns
Local coverage has flagged both environmental complications and concerns about how the construction team was chosen in the lead-up to work starting. The Ocala Gazette reported that relocating gopher tortoises and clearing other permits could slow the schedule, and that some school board members questioned how firms were scored during the contractor selection process, raising transparency concerns.
Groundbreaking ceremony details…