ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – School leaders on Thursday officially marked the opening the new Tomoka Elementary School in Ormond Beach with a ribbon-cutting celebration.
News 6′s Ezzy Castro spoke to Principal Dr. Julie Roseboom ahead of the ceremony and got a quick tour of the new building.
“We are ready to go. The kids will be here Friday morning for meet-the-teacher and then they come and start school on Monday and we can not wait to get them inside and see their little faces when they see their brand new school,” Roseboom said.
School board member Carl Persis said the original building opened in 1968 and was demolished last year to make way for construction, though the idea of building a new school started in 2014.
“When I mentioned that the school was planned in 2014 that’s when the initiative was starting for the new sales tax so that half-cent sales tax in 2016 and it listed schools that were going to be replaced,” Persis said.
Persis was the former principal at Tomoka Elementary in the 90s and is excited to see it’s growth, he explained.
“I was the principal here for 13 years and when I was here I thought it was a pretty nice school,” he said.
The new school has 41 classrooms and has some nostalgic decor so that students can feel “at home” when they begin the new school year.
Stefanie Williams, who said her three kids are excited for their new school, got a tour on Thursday.
“We are so excited. We’ve been waiting. I mean, all the teachers have worked tirelessly to get us to this point,” she said.
Superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgobin also attended the ceremony.
“We have 21st-century technology. The classrooms are truly innovative. This is what every child deserves,” Balgobin said.
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