CLERMONT, Fla. — Back to school brings new school supplies, new classmates and in Lake County, a brand new school. 

Students will be flooding into Lake Pointe Academy for the first time this week and principal Andrea Steenken is bursting at the seams for everyone to check it out. 

“People come in and it’s like, I’m grabbing them, I’m not ready for them to leave, I want to show them one more thing about the school,” said Lake Pointe Academy principal Andrea Steenken. 

The first kindergarten through eighth grade public school in Lake County will focus on E-STEAM. The first ‘E’ stands for environment.

“We’ve got the woods out there, if you turn you’re able to see and be able to extend the learning to outside,” said Steenken. 

And the rest of the letters: “Science, technology, engineering, art and then mathematics. Whenever you get out into careers, all of those really do blend in together to help them be a successful adult,” said Steenken.

Each classroom contains high-tech elements like a 75-inch screen. But a lot of learning will be done in other parts of the school, including open collaborative areas tailored to each grade level.

“Just being able to take our students outside of those four walls. Now we have an additional space we can bring them to do some more hands on and collaboration together in the collaborative areas,” said Steenken.

In place of a typical media center is a large STEM Lab where students can work on robotics and more. 

“When we look at LEGOs and the engineering behind that and the design process and K’NEX and a lot of different things that’ll be going on in that STEM lab, to extend the science and technology that they’ll be having in the classroom,” said Steenken.

A culinary arts room complete with a garden outside will teach how to become a young chef. 

“The students will be able to see how we go from that farm to fresh, as they utilize that space to grow some herbs,” said Steenken.

And whether you’re an aspiring artist, scientist, musician or athlete, Lake Pointe looks to provide a team atmosphere.

“I’m imagining as a K-8 our second graders coming to basketball games,” said Steenken. “It’s the middle schoolers that are playing but we can build that excitement and that pride in being a Blue Jay from the beginning.” 

Principal Steenken believes having students at one school for all those years will help provide continuity. 

“We’re going to be able to see our students grow from kindergarten all the way through eighth grade and be able to foster those relationships with our families and our community as they transition from that elementary age to the middle school age,” said Steenken. 

Lake Pointe Academy is a relief school for Sawgrass Elementary and Windy Hill Middle School. They also offered open enrollment earlier this year.