Starting Anew

For the 2021-2022 school year, there will be a new high school that will be opening up in the World Golf Village of St. Johns District. The construction has already begun for the new school next to Mill Creek Academy. This new school will take the overflow of kids from Nease, Creekside, and Bartram high schools. The school at the moment Is called HHH high school. The principal has already been decided and it will be Jay Willets. He used to be the principal of Pacetti Bay Middle School, but will now be the principal of the new high school.

I emailed Mr. Willets some questions to get some information on this new school. I asked him, “What obstacles might you have that differ from the ones at Pacetti Bay?” He responded to me with, “Creating comprehensive high school designs for 2100 students is a daunting task that I never had the opportunity to do in my 28 years of education, but I am enjoying this new challenge immensely.” This new school looks like it’ll be giving some challenges to some experienced hard workers in the educational field. Mr. Willets also mentioned to me that, “I am also focused on creating a high school experience that is fun, challenging, and full of opportunities to engage in programs/clubs/athletics of their choice.” This new school will provide some difficulties for everybody, but it sounds like Mr. Willets has a good idea of what he’s going to do to overcome these obstacles and make it the best for the students and staff. 

Another question I asked Mr. Willets was, “Are there any goals you have as this new principal for the upcoming years?” He responded with, “I look forward to starting our traditions, creating exciting pathways to post-secondary programming and having FUN! Our students at HHH High school can expect to be surrounded by a brand new school that will host pep rallies, dances, open-air social venues, state of the art equipment, sporting and club activities, and numerous opportunities to help shape our culture and social focus.” With these amazing activities that are planned out for the school there are also three new academies which are: Health Professionals, Innovation in the built environment (construction management) and Emerging Technologies (robotics, coding, and drones) It looks like Mr. Willets has many plans for the new school to really engage the students and build a good learning environment for them. 

I sat down with Juan Cervantes, who is a junior this year, but will be a senior next year. There will be no senior class for the new high school, otherwise he told me that he most likely would’ve gone to the new school. I asked him, “How do you think Nease will be with the amount of students that will be going to the new high school?” Juan told me, “With all the students in WGV transferring to the new high school, I think that Nease will become a little less crowded.” There will be many students coming from the World Golf Village area that will be transferring to the school because of how close it will be to them compared to Nease. 

This new school will have a big impact on the surrounding areas taking populations out of other high schools. The zoning for the school has not officially come out yet, but they do have proposed zoning on St. Johns County website. This school will provide many opportunities for the students and should be a great school for them.

As of today, December 8th, 2020, the name and colors of the new school have officially been announced. After some thought, the St. Johns County school board has announced that the name for the high school will be Tocoi Creek High School. It has been decided for some time that the school colors will be burnt orange, gunmetal grey, and black. A Toro has been selected as the mascot of the new school.