More than 30,000 Escambia County Public School students returned to classes Aug. 12 for the first day of 2026-27 school year.
At Longleaf K-8, it was a first day filled with several firsts. The former Longleaf Elementary School welcomed its inaugural seventh-grade class, made up of about 40 students. For the first time, the school’s upperclassmen, along with around 60 sixth graders, now have their own wing on the campus. Next year, the school will add eighth grade classes.
Troy Brown, Longleaf K-8 principal, said the middle schoolers will change classes, have traditional six-period days and choose electives. The middle school will also have its own bell schedule, which will only ring in the wing.
So far, the school has about 630 kindergarten through seventh grade students this year. Fifth graders have the option of remaining at Longleaf K-8 for middle school, and the school also accepts School Choice students, as space allows.
“This year, we added a lot of cool things we didn’t really have when we added sixth grade last year. The students this year will travel at a normal middle school traditional bell schedule. They will switch classes. Last year, they were only split between two teachers,” Brown said, adding that elementary and middle school students will be in classes from 7:50 a.m. to 1:40 p.m.
Computer lab, physical education, beginning band and chorus are among the electives available to middle schoolers.
“The computer lab is the biggest draw. Every middle and high school has some type of career and technical program. Ours will be more centered around AI (artificial intelligence)” Brown said, adding that two classrooms were combined to create the lab, which has workstations on one side and a lab on the other.
Brown also touted the school earning a B school grade this past year, up from a C during the 2024-25 school year.
“We’re very proud of that. We have some great teachers here, and they work really hard. A lot of praise goes to them,” he said.
Longleaf’s reputation, B school grade and hours were factors in Clifford Nicholson and his wife, Kareema Keligond, choosing the school for their daughters, Zeniah Nicholson, 12, and Amara Nicholson, 11.
“I heard really, really good things about Longleaf (Elementary). I didn’t even know it had become a middle school until last Friday,” Keligond said, explaining she liked the overall smaller middle school environment Longleaf K-8 offered and its earlier start and finish times.
“Their cousin, Taelyn Clark, goes to school here, and we got a lot of information from her and a lot of other parents. After hearing about the middle school here, I knew I had to get both of my girls in here.”
Keligond said attending Longleaf K-8 will also give Zeniah, who had been homeschooled, an opportunity to socialize more with children her age and interact with teachers one-on-one.
Zeniah admitted she is a little nervous about entering the seventh grade but was looking forward to the whole middle school experience.
“I’m really excited about meeting new people and making friends. I want to take a foreign language, maybe Spanish, as one of my electives and hopefully, I get a chance to play volleyball,” she said.
Also new to Longleaf K-8, computer fundamentals teacher Jessica Steele predicts her class will be one of the most popular middle school electives. An ECPS teacher since 2018, she previously taught at Bellview Middle School.
“The middle schoolers are going to have lots of fun this year. I have robots. I have 3D printers. I’ll have a T-shirt printer. The students will get to learn a lot more than just computers and coding,” Steele said of her full-production lab. “We built a brand new computer lab here. This is the first year the kids will have full computer lab.”
Steele also brought her son, Joshua, a third grader, to Longleaf K-8. He had been a student at Bellview Elementary, and though it was early morning, Joshua was “somewhat excited” about his new school — but not the time classes start.
“I have to wake up at 5:50,” he said, while showing off a cast on his left wrist and sharing how it got there. “I put on my rollerblades and, believe it or not, I was going to get my wrist guards and fell on my wrist.”
His mother said Joshua broke his right arm two years ago.
“My left arm was jealous of my right arm,” Joshua joked.
A bright spot is classes start a little later – 7:30 a.m. – at Bellview Elementary.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a transition, but he did tell Mama that he’s glad to be at school with her,” Steele said.
There were a few tears nearly shed from parents, among them Longleaf Elementary alum Brande Hawkins. Her youngest, DeSean Rich, was heading to kindergarten.
“Longleaf is a great school. I went here, and I loved it,” said Hawkins, a mother of five: three adults and an Escambia High School senior. “We all went through the school district, and I know my baby is in good hands.”
When asked if he was excited about kindergarten, DeSean responded with a resounding “Yes.” And “drawing fruits,” is the activity the 5-year-old said he’s looking forward to in his teacher, Mrs. Jones’ class.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia goes back to school with big changes at Longleaf. What’s new
Reporting by Mary Lett, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mary Lett, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
