ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There’s nothing like the first day of school at a brand new school.

Mangrove Bay Middle School, more formally known as the Mangrove Bay Middle School Health and Wellness Leadership Academy, opened its doors to students for the first time Monday morning.

The school replaces the former Riviera Middle School that closed permanently in 2008.

What You Need To Know

  • Mangrove Bay Middle shares part of its campus with Speer YMCA

  • School includes new track and physical fitness spaces through YMCA partnership  

  • Curriculum includes culinary classes where students use on-site garden

  • Fully enrolled for first day 

The new magnet middle school has a focus on healthy living. It shares a campus with Speer YMCA which opened in 2023 and through the new partnership provides resources to students like a swimming pool, cycling equipment, and dance rooms.

Roughly one-third of the facility is shared between the YMCA and the new middle school.

The school is led by principal Brett Patterson, who has been working on hiring staff and getting it ready for the better part of a year. The school has a dedicated kitchen that Patterson calls the Family and Consumer Science Classroom, where students will not only learn cooking and nutrition, but use vegetables they will grow at an on-site garden.

Patterson says 100 students will also have an additional Physical Education class each day.  The new track and adjoining sportsplex will be used by all students, but some more than once a day.

 

“What I’m looking forward to most is having all of our plans come to fruition and be able to provide that support and experience for our students,” Patterson said.

 

Eight grade students will complete a capstone project to conclude their time at Mangrove Middle and will have to do something health or wellness related in the community, and then use the school’s new TV production studio to create a digital portfolio.

Patterson says the school is application based for south Pinellas County but students who live nearby and those funneling out of Lakewood Elementary’s similar program will get priority. For the first day of the 2024-2025, the school is fully enrolled at maximum capacity.