Wesley Chapel to Get $80 Million Medical Magnet High School by 2028

Pasco County Schools is building an $80 million medical magnet high school in Wesley Chapel, with the district targeting a fall 2028 opening near Double Branch Elementary off Meadow Pointe Boulevard. The school will be open to any Pasco County student at no extra cost and will center on nursing, medical lab science and imaging, including labs built to simulate surgical and operating room settings.

Superintendent John Legg says the timing is not random. He points to a projected need for 30,000 new healthcare jobs across the North Tampa Bay region over the next five years, and he wants Pasco graduates filling them instead of employers hiring from outside the county.

"We know that there's gonna be a need for 30,000 new medical jobs here in the North Tampa Bay community in the next 5 years, and we want our students here in Pasco County to be front of the line for those jobs," Legg said, according to local media outlets. He added that the goal is for area hospitals and clinics to hire Pasco-trained students first rather than recruiting elsewhere.

The school is expected to open with capacity for around 1,300 students, according to local news reports, making it a sizable addition to a high school landscape in Wesley Chapel that already includes Wesley Chapel High and Wiregrass Ranch High, both of which have wrestled with overcrowding as the area's population keeps climbing.

How it's being paid for

Funding comes from the Penny for Pasco sales tax, local property taxes and support from area medical partners, according to district officials. It is one of two new schools the district has recently confirmed for the fast-growing Wesley Chapel corridor as it tries to keep pace with new rooftops going up along State Road 56 and CR-54.

Local families who talked to news crews said the timing lines up with what they are already seeing in the area. Wesley Chapel parent Lauren Mataja said the number of hospitals nearby makes the program a natural fit, and that deciding on a career path at 18 is hard for most teenagers. Wesley Chapel grandparent Ed Procopio, whose daughter became an OR nurse, said he wishes a program like this had existed when she was in high school, since it would have given her a running start on college coursework.

What this means for 7th graders now

Legg said students currently in 7th grade are the ones who should start thinking now about whether the new school fits their interests, since they would be entering as freshmen around the time it opens. The district has not released an enrollment or application process yet, and families will need to watch for guidance as the 2028 opening approaches.

Boundaries are shifting too

Separately, Pasco County Schools is redrawing attendance boundaries for six Wesley Chapel-area schools to manage the same growth: New River Elementary, Watergrass Elementary, Centennial Middle, Raymond B. Stewart Middle, Thomas E. Weightman Middle and Wesley Chapel High. That rezoning effort is distinct from the medical magnet project but reflects the same underlying pressure, a growing number of school-age kids in a corridor that keeps adding subdivisions faster than seats in existing classrooms.

The district has not released architectural renderings, a groundbreaking date or a formal enrollment application process for the medical magnet school. Those details are expected to follow as the project moves from planning into construction over the next two years.

For more on how Wesley Chapel's growth is reshaping local schools, visit our education coverage and our government and politics section. You can also follow along on our Wesley Chapel Community Website, on Facebook, Instagram and X, and join the conversation about what this school could mean for your family in our Community Forum.