MARTIN COUNTY — A new building is coming to Murray Middle School as the Martin County School District works to rebuild and expand the campus following damage from Hurricane Milton.
The district will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 27 to mark the start of construction on the project, which combines previously planned campus improvements with the replacement of buildings damaged by the storm.
Mark Sechrist, the district's director of facilities, said the original plans called for a new administration and media center building modeled after similar facilities at other district middle schools.
"The buildings were going to be developed similar to what we have at Indiantown Middle School and now Stuart Middle School, since it just completed," Sechrist said. "So we were originally going to do an admin media center building. So that building in itself is very similar to those two campuses at Murray Middle."
Hurricane Milton changed the scope of the project after damaging three campus buildings. Sechrist said the district worked with the Florida Department of Education to obtain approval to demolish the structures and incorporate their functions into the new building.
"What happened was when Milton came through, it affected three of the buildings, so we worked with FDOE to get approval to raise those buildings. So then we had to incorporate those classrooms or functions into the new building," he said.
The storm's damage required the school to use temporary classrooms on campus. The new facility is expected to provide more adaptable learning environments, with furniture that can be rearranged to accommodate different teaching methods and classroom needs.
"The space has become a little bit more flexible, so when you have a classroom or a lab, the furniture is built to be kind of movable or function the way that either the student or the teacher wants to teach," Sechrist said.
The building will house administrative offices, a media center, laboratories, an art room, band and chorus spaces, and agricultural science facilities.
As the project has expanded, the district has also worked to keep families informed about the plans and construction process.
"We've been trying through SAC meetings and we actually did a town hall meeting to keep the community informed of how this project is going to progress and what to expect," Sechrist said.
The new building also will be designed to meet current Florida Building Code requirements, which establish construction standards that account for environmental conditions and severe weather.
"Projects are designed to the Florida Building Code, which currently has different standards than it did even five years ago," Sechrist said. "So as the code changes to the requirements of the environment or weather, as you guys stated, then the building is addressed as well. So these buildings are built to a certain level of hurricane resistance."
Construction is expected to take a little more than a year, with the building potentially opening in late 2027 or early 2028.
"Somewhere in that 2027 early 2028 is when building one will open," Sechrist said. "Building one now is basically one two-story building that encases everything that we're replacing. So it has the admin, media, labs, a band and chorus."
Despite the construction activity, Sechrist said the project is designed to minimize disruptions to students and families.
The district has built a separate construction road connecting roads north and south of the campus, allowing construction vehicles to bypass the school's car line. A barrier also separates the construction area from the existing campus.
"We actually built a construction road which connects the road south of the campus to the road north of the campus," Sechrist said. "So construction traffic can go through that construction road and it doesn't affect car line or anything."
He said the construction area is located on the far eastern side of the campus, helping keep the work separate from existing school operations.