New School Year Brings New High School, New Principals, and New Communications Platform
AUGUST 6, 2026 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kevin Christian, APR, CPRC, Director of Public Relations
352.671.7734 w ◊ 352.840.3265 c
[email protected]
NEW SCHOOL YEAR BRINGS NEW HIGH SCHOOL, NEW PRINCIPALS, AND NEW COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM
MARION COUNTY – A new two-way communications platform. One new high school. Sixteen schools with new principals, including eight first-time campus leaders. All of these and more mark the start of a new school year in Marion County Public Schools (MCPS).
Classes begin Monday for a projected 46,697 students in the District’s 54 traditional schools and five charter schools. Attendance will continue building, then typically peak in October when official student counts are taken for funding reasons.
Teachers returned Aug. 3 while brand-new teachers started their MCPS careers at a two-day special “Great Beginnings” seminar last week. To date, MCPS has hired over 120 new teachers for this year with another 30 processing. As of today, MCPS has 62 teacher vacancies, fewer than the same last year.
South Marion High School opens its doors for the first time Monday morning following two new school openings last year. SMHS is located on 115 acres near Marion Oaks in Southwest Marion County, an area known for is explosive growth over the last six years. The $180+ million school is expected to open at capacity of 2,011 students. A third-floor buildout is under construction and will increase that capacity to 2,711 students once complete.
In addition to the SMHS Bears, another new term this year is “Apptegy,” the new communications platform for MCPS schools, teachers, students, and families. While District and school administrators will use an “Alerts” module for mass messaging, teachers can use a “Rooms” module to directly communicate with students and parents/families/guardians. This two-way platform provides a secure, monitored environment for school communications. Apptegy’s “Attendance Pro” module will allow the District to address chronic absenteeism head on with progressive messaging regarding student absences and tardiness.
A new MCPS mobile app ties all aspects of the Apptegy platform together. This free app is expected to launch by Sept. 1, and though not required to receive messaging, students and parents/families/guardians will find the best user experience within the app.
Because Marion County encompasses more than 1,650 square miles (larger than the state of Rhode Island), transportation is always a top concern for MCPS. Parents will still be able to utilize the “My Ride K-12” mobile app for bus pickup and drop-off times and bus stop locations. This free app is available in most app stores. Parents and families should use student ID numbers to link their students within the app.
MCPS operates about 250 bus routes every day, transporting upwards of 23,000 students to and from campus. During this 180-day school year, MCPS buses will log about 35,763 daily round-trip miles, or 6.4 million miles altogether. That’s enough to circle the Earth about 258 times, travel to Alaska and back 685 times, or take nearly 1,200 coast-to-coast trips.
Bus transportation details are available at school orientations held this week or by contacting local schools or the Transportation Department at 352.671.7050. A word of caution – this hotline number is extremely busy at the opening of school each year so patience is encouraged.
Drivers are reminded to be especially alert, particularly for those large yellow school buses, cars with students riders, and students walking or riding bicycles to school. School zones are often marked with flashing yellow lights, and fines for speeding in school zones are doubled.
Florida Statute 810.097 prohibits unauthorized boarding of school buses by parents and other adults. Doing so is a second-degree misdemeanor and may result in arrest and prosecution.
State law also requires adults who volunteer as chaperones, especially for overnight and off-campus events, to clear a Level II background check at their expense. Classroom and on-campus volunteers in MCPS are generally exempt from this requirement.
Existing state law also requires incoming seventh graders to have their immunizations up-to-date by the start of school. Otherwise, they are not allowed in class on the first day. Last year, 171 seventh graders lacked proper immunizations and were prevented from attending first-day classes. Outreach efforts to reduce this number started back in the spring with in-school clinics and continued as recently as Wednesday evening with phone call reminders and immunization clinics.
MCPS continues offering free meals to all students regardless of income because of the District’s participation in the Community Eligibility Provision, part of the federal government’s school nutrition program. Schools in high-need areas provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to students without requiring families to apply for free and reduced-price meals. Last school year, Food Service workers served 9.7 million meals to MCPS students.
Fifteen schools have new principals this year, including some first-time principals (marked with an asterisk):
- *Belleview Elementary – Rebekah Winkler
- *Belleview-Santos Elementary – Connie Carpenter
- Dunnellon Elementary – Victoria Thompson
- Dunnellon High – Erika Wiggins
- Eighth Street Elementary – Renee Johnson (dual-campus principal with Osceola Middle)
- *Fordham Early Learning Academy – Tracy Moody
- Forest High – Chris Carlisle
- *Fort King Middle – Katy Owen
- *Hillcrest – Cindy Lowe
- Horizon Academy at Marion Oaks – Wade Martin
- Howard Middle – Dr. Dion Gary
- *Liberty Middle – Terrell Davis
- *North Marion Middle – Stephanie Collins
- South Ocala Elementary – Ryan Bennett
- *Sunrise Elementary – Susan Williams
Attendance continues to be a focus, especially for students who are chronically absent. This year’s attendance theme, “Your Presence Matters,” will target those students missing at least 10% of the school year at any point. Last year, more than 30% of graduating seniors were chronically absent. Apptegy outreach efforts will include multiple parent/family notifications, text messages, and reminders about the importance of being on time, every day, for every class. Many people do not realize missing just one day of school each month can equate to missing 10% of classroom instruction time.
Elementary schools will “stagger start” Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) and kindergarten students, meaning one third of students report to school either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. On Thursday, August 13, all kindergarten students report to class (projections for 971 PreK and 3,149 kindergarten). Staggering times like this gives younger students more personal time with their teachers, making the adjustment to school easier.
Marion Afterschool Programs (MAP) enrollment is already at 3,000 students. The popular program offers adult supervision of students before and after school. As of today, several of MAP’s 40 sites have waiting lists even before school has started.
The complete school calendar is available, along with lots of other information, at www.marionschools.net.
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