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Gateway High School ready for students

By MEGHAN BRADBURY - | May 26, 2021

The East Zone’s newest campus, Gateway High School, will open this fall. PHOTO PROVIDED

news@breezenewspapers.com

Gateway High School opened its doors for a ribbon cutting last week, showcasing the $98 million project, which includes the first Collegiate Academy in the East Zone, to the community.

“It was a really great day,” Principal Neketa Watson said, adding that people from the community, and district personnel attended. “We have been looking forward and preparing for that day for a long time.”

Construction began on Sept. 3, 2019. The school will open its doors to freshmen, sophomore and junior students on the first day of classes, Aug. 10. The following year all grades will be enrolled.

Currently there are 475 freshmen who were in portables on the campus at Lehigh Senior High School who will transfer to the Gateway High campus this fall.

“The students we have now will be 10th graders,” Watson said. “There will be 600 freshmen, and we will be at capacity for 500 10th grade students and the junior class will be 100 students.”

Gateway High School has a Collegiate Academy with students participating in dual enrollment with Florida Gulf Coast University. Juniors will be the first participants of the Collegiate Academy.

“They are full-time college students and high school students at the same time,” Watson said, adding that they will take all of their college courses on the FGCU campus.

With Gateway High School being a full Cambridge School, about 90 freshman participated this year in taking AICE classes. Next year, Watson said they will have 200 students taking rigorous, accelerated classes where they are receiving college credits.

There will also be five career academies — vet, medical, carpentry, cyber security and engineering. She said she brought on the engineering academy after working with FGCU and looking at its construction program. Construction is part of the FGCU’s engineering department, which she was impressed with.

“I was impressed and aware of opportunities for students completing the career (academy) in engineering,” Watson said of creating and developing that partnership with FGCU.

The new campus is three stories with hallways that extend about 1,200 feet in length. There are three different buildings.

“It’s a huge campus,” Watson said.

With that said the security is top tier as they learned from schools around the state and Bonita Springs High School.

“It will have over 100 cameras, single point entry into the building and also a guard gate. Anyone entering the campus must stop at the guard gate,” she said.

Once individuals get to the front office there is a camera that will look at their ID before buzzing them into the building. The front office, too, is secure as there is a need for a badge or to be buzzed further onto the campus.

There is currently one school resource officer with the plan of having two once the school opens, as well as five additional security guards.

The campus also features one of the largest “beautiful” weight rooms in the district, where Watson said they will train athletes to be the absolute best.

Although sports were offered this year for freshmen students, the goal is to expand it into varsity level next year as more students attend the campus.

“Athletes went a whole year without being in a weight room,” she said, adding that they also had no athletic facility this year. “We had to play outside and a lot of time it was not an ideal location for us.”

So far there are 24 teachers on the staff with Watson in the process of hiring about 35 additional teachers.

With the 2021-2022 school year beginning on the new campus, Watson said she is excited to get in the building, especially after spending a year in portables.

“The portables were not bad, (but there is) nothing like having your own space, getting in the building and having spacious classrooms,” she said, adding this is what she is looking forward to in August. “I’m just excited. I have the best team of educators. They are dedicated to making this the best school for our scholars.”

Gateway High School is at 799 Gunnery Road North in Lehigh Acres. The students are on a block schedule from 7:05 a.m. to 1:35 p.m.