The Okaloosa County School District celebrated its newest campus Friday morning with a ribbon cutting ceremony at Pineview School, capping a construction effort that took just 18 months from groundbreaking to completion.

• The K-8 school, located at 5200 Enzor Road along the Southwest Crestview Bypass, welcomed its first students on Tuesday before hosting Friday’s ceremony in the campus’s media center. It is the district’s first new school since 2008.

Attendees arrived wearing the school’s color, purple. JROTC cadets presented the colors, about 20 students sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” and a student led the Pledge of Allegiance before remarks from district leaders. Students from Crestview High School were also on hand, helping with snacks and refreshments.

“Today marks the beginning of something truly special as we open the doors to a brand-new campus and welcome our inaugural students and families,” Principal Dr. Donna Kelley said. “Pineview was designed with a vision of innovation, technology, student engagement, and critical thinking at the center of learning.”

Kelley said the school’s goal is to create an environment where students are inspired to explore, collaborate and solve problems.

• “As we welcome our first Pineview Bears, we are filled with excitement, hope, and pride,” Kelley said. “Together, we’re gonna build traditions, create lasting memories, and establish a legacy that will shape this school for generations to come.”

Assistant Superintendent Grant Meyer looked back on how quickly the project came together. Four years ago, he said, he was trying to navigate a trail on the property, and a deer stand sat at roughly the same spot where officials gathered Friday.

“Less than three years, we went from walking that trail to what is in front of us,” Meyer said. “Under two years from the time the GMP got approved by our board, and then last December of ’24, we were standing here breaking ground. So eighteen months, this thing was built.”

Superintendent Marcus Chambers said the ceremony was one of nearly 20 ribbon cuttings the district has held across the county in the last three to four years. He said the Pineview project grew out of a problem that had been building for years in the northern part of the county.

“I’d go back maybe five-and-a-half years ago, when the thought was, what are we gonna do in the north end of the county?” Chambers said. “Almost every single school was over capacity at the time. Every elementary, the middle schools, high school.”

Chambers said the district chose to build a K-8 school to provide the widest relief across the system.

• “Every elementary’s over capacity, both middle schools are over capacity. How do we help the most schools? Let’s build a K-8 school,” Chambers said. “By doing that, we’re able to have capacity at the elementary schools that you now see here in Crestview, and the two middle schools as well.”

The campus sits on 40 acres of an 80-acre parcel the district purchased, with the remaining acreage held in reserve for future growth. Chambers said the decision was strategic, given the pace of development in the area.

“We call ourselves the Tale of Two Counties,” Chambers said. “Below the Shoal River, not as much growth happening. Above the Shoal River, a lot of growth happening in this area.”

Chambers said the new school, combined with projects funded in part by the half-cent sales tax approved by voters, is helping the district’s facilities catch up to the quality of its programs.

“In our county, we’ve been blessed to do well academically, athletically, and in the arts,” Chambers said. “But what we have not done as much historically is have facilities that match the excellence of our students, our teachers, our staff, and administrators. And now across the county, we’re starting to match that excellence.”

He said the school’s location along the bypass will also drive economic development in the area.

• “A healthy school district, a healthier economy,” Chambers said. “And now what’s going to happen out here, the growth that will happen, will be absolutely amazing.”

School Board Member Linda Evanchyk recalled the December 2024 groundbreaking, when the property was still being cleared and fires burned off overgrowth in the distance.

“It’s amazing that coming from all those fiery things that such a beautiful place as this school has become, a place of learning and growth for our students,” Evanchyk said.

Evanchyk, a former classroom educator, said Pineview is part of a promise the board made to voters when it sought the half-cent sales tax.

“Just a few short years ago, our school board and district promised our citizens that if they allowed us to raise funds through a sales tax, we would improve our school’s infrastructure and provide the best environment possible for all of our students,” Evanchyk said. “As a former classroom educator, I know how important the environment is to the success of a student. We are continuing to keep that promise throughout the district.”

The two-story campus includes three classroom wings, an administrative building with a media center and cafeteria, a gymnasium with band and chorus facilities, and a Career and Technical Education wing. The cafeteria is designed as an Enhanced Hurricane Protection Area. The school has capacity for 1,200 students.

The Okaloosa County School Board voted unanimously in 2024 to name the school Pineview, a nod to the pine-covered hills and the region’s roots in the timber and turpentine industries.