JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Six decades worth of Jacksonville history will come tumbling down and replaced with something new. Duval County School leaders held a groundbreaking for the new Jean Ribault High School Tuesday. The school opened in the late 50s, but students will walk into a brand new school in 2025.
First Coast News talked with two alumni who were part of the last group to walk into a brand new school there – in 1957.
“I was the first quarterback and my only claim to fame in this world is that I scored the first touchdown for Ribault High School against Englewood," said Ribault Class of '59 Graduate Bob White.
That was a touchdown in the pouring rain on an option play that White will never forget.
White was there when Ribault High opened, all because the head football coach offered him the starting gig if he switched from Andrew Jackson High School to the brand new one.
“It’s hard to express the closeness that first group that founded this school, that named it, picked out its colors, everything," said White. "That’s a bond that’ll never go away until we die.”
While the bond will never go away, the school those early graduates once knew will.
The 64 years since White graduated have taken their toll on the school, so it will be replaced with a brand new, $58 million building.
The new school, paid for by the half cent sales tax, will offer a banking, aviation, robotics, culinary arts, nursing and digital production programs along with a rooftop urban agricultural garden.
“We’re still Trojan Land," said Ribault Class of '94 Graduate Melissa Richards. "We’re still Jean Ribault High School. That won’t change, just the hallways will look a little different.”
Richards says she’s going to make sure there’s a bit of the old building’s history packed in those new hallways.
“We have a rich history," said Richards. "We want to ensure our kids that are coming up understand where they come from and the shoulders they’re standing on.”
White has all the old yearbooks and newspaper clippings to make sure even the earliest days aren’t forgotten.
“If somebody 100 years from now goes back and starts looking, there’ll be a record of the school, and I think that’s important," said White.
The entire school won’t be coming down.
The auditorium, JROTC and music building are too new to demo, but they’ll be gutted and remodeled.
The high school students will be at Ribault Middle across the street this year and next year before the new school opens in 2025.