Edwins Elementary School celebrated the opening of its new cafetorium and playground with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning, marking the completion of a project that began as a vision in the same school over 5 years ago.

• The multipurpose facility will serve as both a cafeteria and auditorium, featuring an updated kitchen and modern music classroom. The improvements also included a newly paved car rider line, a new track and two playground sets designed to serve all students, including those with special needs.

“These changes have made daily life for students better and increased our ability to serve our community,” said Principal Kathleen Armstrong during the ceremony.

The event drew community members, dignitaries, former teachers and support staff of Edwins Elementary, as well as faculty and leadership students from Fort Walton Beach High School. Students from the Edwins Drum Team and Edwins Chorus performed musical numbers for the audience.

Among those in attendance was Fort Walton Beach native Scott Capps, who attended Edwins Elementary as a student in the 1970s and has worked as the school’s custodian for the past 18 years. 

• “I don’t want to work anywhere else because of how I feel about and how special Edwins is to me,” Capps told Armstrong. Capps now has grandchildren who also attend the school.

Former Principal Gwen Morris, who was instrumental in highlighting the school’s renovation needs, also attended. Morris has deep connections to Edwins — she attended the school in third and fourth grade and later served the school for 22 years in various roles including teacher, guidance counselor, assistant principal and principal.

“We are so thankful for this building,” Morris said. “I’m so glad for the students and the parents of this community.”

The project holds special significance as Edwins Elementary was where the half-cent sales tax initiative was first announced on January 14, 2020. During that initial announcement, Morris took attendees on a tour of the old cafeteria. 

• “We are hoping for a multipurpose building one day,” Morris said then, in a moment captured on video. Five years later, that hope has become reality.

Superintendent Marcus Chambers reflected on the full-circle moment of returning to where the initiative began.

“It was a surreal moment,” Chambers said. “When the citizens came together and wanted to do the half-cent sales tax, it started in the old cafeteria here at Edwins. To fast forward 5 years later and this project is now done, it’s just something that makes me proud because the community did this. To come back where it all started is absolutely precious.”

The improvements at Edwins represent one of many projects being implemented across the Okaloosa County School District through the half-cent sales tax.

Armstrong announced that planning is underway for the next phase of renovations, which will include a modern media center, a STEM lab, a teacher workroom, itinerant offices, a conference room and three new classrooms.

The half-cent sales tax initiative is now in its fifth year, with five more years to go.