Pasco County Schools is building an $80 million medical magnet high school in Wesley Chapel, with the district targeting a fall 2028 opening near Double Branch Elementary off Meadow Pointe Boulevard. The school will be open to any Pasco County student at no extra cost and will center on nursing, medical lab science and imaging, including labs built to simulate surgical and operating room settings.
Superintendent John Legg says the timing is not random. He points to a projected need for 30,000 new healthcare jobs across the North Tampa Bay region over the next five years, and he wants Pasco graduates filling them instead of employers hiring from outside the county.
“We know that there’s gonna be a need for 30,000 new medical jobs here in the North Tampa Bay community in the next 5 years, and we want our students here in Pasco County to be front of the line for those jobs,” Legg said, according to local media outlets. He added that the goal is for area hospitals and clinics to hire Pasco-trained students first rather than recruiting elsewhere…