Eastside Elementary Transitions to K-8 for Overcrowding Relief

A 50-year-old Brooksville elementary school, already mid-construction on a $26.8 million expansion, will be reimagined as a space-industry-focused K-8 academy under a plan the Hernando County School Board has endorsed as a cost-efficient alternative to building an entirely new middle school on the county's eastside.

Eastside Elementary, currently serving approximately 743 students in grades pre-K through 5, will be renamed Eastside Academy of Leadership and Innovation. Sixth grade will be added in the 2026-27 school year, followed by seventh and eighth grades in the two subsequent years. The school will operate as a school of choice, meaning students will not be automatically assigned by address.

Principal Dr. Mike Lastra has been the driving force behind the initiative. "Eastside Academy of Leadership and Innovation is a school of choice that provides students with authentic learning experiences through hands-on instruction and purposeful field experiences," Lastra said. "More than a school, we will be a launchpad for future-ready learners."

The space-industry emphasis ties directly to Hernando County's position as one of 23 Florida school districts to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Space Florida, the state's aerospace finance and development authority. The Space Florida Academy Program covers 360 of the 550 credentials on the state's Master Credential List identified as desirable by the aerospace industry. The district has built a strategic career pipeline alongside Wilton Simpson Technical College and space industry partners, and the new academy will offer a dedicated course in college and career readiness and leadership development aligned with the Leader in Me program, launched district-wide in 2025.

The K-8 conversion is backed by construction already underway. The school board voted unanimously on April 8, 2025 to approve a $26,805,614 contract with Williams Company Tampa for a new cafeteria and 20 additional classrooms at Eastside. Those 20 classrooms are projected to house 440 additional students, and the new cafeteria will free the original eating space for conversion into a larger administrative suite with a better-defined public entry. Phase 1 of the district's multi-phase capacity expansion plan targets completion by spring 2026, with Phase 2 following by 2027.

Board Vice Chairperson Mark Johnson, who represents District 1 and has advocated for eastside educational infrastructure since moving to Hernando County from New York, called the conversion a long-sought partial victory. "I've been in favor of having a middle and high school out on the east side of the county," Johnson said. "I get tired of talking to people with deaf ears, so this is a great partial solution to that. I'm very pleased to learn about this."

Board Chairperson Kayce Hawkins made clear the stakes behind the broader expansion effort. "This is definitely not a desire, it is a requirement in my opinion," Hawkins said.

That urgency has deep roots. Boundary rezoning in late 2023 attempted to relieve pressure at Winding Waters K-8, Explorer K-8, and Spring Hill Elementary. Phase 1 of the district plan also includes 30 classrooms near Winding Waters K-8 designed to accommodate 660 to 750 additional students. Eastside's conversion is intended to create eastside middle-school capacity without the cost of building from the ground up, a distinction the district has repeatedly emphasized as it manages growth across all 25 schools serving 23,963 students under Superintendent Ray Pinder.

The conversion also slots into a regional pattern. In February 2026, the Pasco County School Board voted unanimously to merge Pasco Elementary and Pasco Middle School into a single K-8 for 2026-27 and to convert Lacoochee Elementary into a K-8 by 2027-28. Hernando County already runs three such schools, Challenger K-8, Explorer K-8, and Winding Waters K-8, giving the district a proven operational model to draw from.

Eastside earned an 'A' from the Florida Department of Education in 2017-18 before sliding to a 'D' by 2022-23 and recovering to a 'C' in the most recent assessment. The academy's launch in a school now entering its 51st year marks the sharpest reinvention in Eastside's history.