Nearly everywhere you look in St. Johns County you’ll find signs that say “new homes coming soon.”
Home sales, especially in Nocatee, are skyrocketing. Leanne Davidson who lives in the Greenleaf subdivision has seen it firsthand.
“When we moved in our street was pretty much empty and now it's got houses everywhere,” said Davidson.
Nocatee is slated to be one of three major growth areas that will get a brand new school and now we know exactly how much money is coming in thanks to the half-cent sales tax increase.
“It's about what we expected $1,124,769.40,” said Superintendent Dr. Joseph Joyner.
And that’s just for the month of January. The district is still waiting to see how much came in for February and March.
Joyner said they’re not wasting any time, they’ve already issued bonds for that money.
“We went out and sold bonds for that money about $50 million in bonds that allows us to start construction right away,” said Joyner.
Construction is set to begin in May, three schools will be built at the same time with the hopes of opening them next year.
“I’m really excited there's a new school coming into Nocatee,” said Davidson.
Next week the board selected to oversee the spending of the half-cent sales tax money will meet for the first time.
Since the district has built several schools over the last few years, they already have an idea for the design of the new schools which Joyner said will save them a lot of time.