{"id":64392,"date":"2026-04-01T18:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64392"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:25:31","slug":"polk-county-public-schools-and-junior-achievement-officially-broke-ground-on-the-ja-barnett-family-discovery-center-at-tenoroc-high-school-this-week-on-march-30-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/01\/polk-county-public-schools-and-junior-achievement-officially-broke-ground-on-the-ja-barnett-family-discovery-center-at-tenoroc-high-school-this-week-on-march-30-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Public Schools and Junior Achievement officially broke ground on the JA Barnett Family Discovery Center at Tenoroc High School this week, on March 30, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This new 20,000-square-foot<\/strong> facility is designed to provide immersive, hands-on learning for more than 20,000 students annually<\/strong>, ranging from elementary to high school.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Key Features of the Discovery Center<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The center will house two of Junior Achievement\u2019s signature programs, which simulate real-world economic environments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Muma BizTown:<\/strong> Targeted at 5th graders, this “student-sized town” allows children to act as citizens, consumers, and employees. They learn to manage businesses, cash paychecks, and navigate the basics of a free enterprise system.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • JA Finance Park:<\/strong> Geared toward middle and high school students, this program focuses on personal financial planning. Students are assigned “adult” personas\u2014complete with a career, salary, and family\u2014and must navigate a budget that includes housing, transportation, and savings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    Project Details & Timeline<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Location:<\/strong> On the campus of Tenoroc High School<\/strong> in Lakeland (4905 Saddle Creek Road).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Opening Date:<\/strong> Construction is expected to move quickly, with an anticipated opening in late fall 2026<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Synergy:<\/strong> The center will complement the existing 3DE instructional model<\/strong> already in place at Tenoroc, which integrates business case studies into standard high school curriculum.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The project is a collaborative effort funded by philanthropic leaders\u2014notably the Barnett family<\/strong>\u2014and various corporate partners aimed at closing educational gaps in financial literacy and career readiness within the district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This new 20,000-square-foot facility is designed to provide immersive, hands-on learning for more than 20,000 students annually, ranging from elementary to high school. Key Features of the Discovery Center The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"26","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDRcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wNC0wMVQxODIzNDUuMTkxLndlYnA_Zml0PTU4NiUyQzMyMiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFB1YmxpYyBTY2hvb2xzIGFuZCBKdW5pb3IgQWNoaWV2ZW1lbnQgb2ZmaWNpYWxseSBicm9rZSBncm91bmQgb24gdGhlIEpBIEJhcm5ldHQgRmFtaWx5IERpc2NvdmVyeSBDZW50ZXIgYXQgVGVub3JvYyBIaWdoIFNjaG9vbCB0aGlzIHdlZWssIG9uIE1hcmNoIDMwLCAyMDI2IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.f8mi1wxpNDEyCkAYq20ekX7GP-9e4i22Rert_Rk5kmUMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA0XC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTIwMjYtMDQtMDFUMTgyMzQ1LjE5MS53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiUG9sayBDb3VudHkgUHVibGljIFNjaG9vbHMgYW5kIEp1bmlvciBBY2hpZXZlbWVudCBvZmZpY2lhbGx5IGJyb2tlIGdyb3VuZCBvbiB0aGUgSkEgQmFybmV0dCBGYW1pbHkgRGlzY292ZXJ5IENlbnRlciBhdCBUZW5vcm9jIEhpZ2ggU2Nob29sIHRoaXMgd2Vlaywgb24gTWFyY2ggMzAsIDIwMjYiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.uE3WDZH1eZLjxiM82Xa3svNHKvBoMELk9ohy6go-Mh0MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[13094,14274,14273],"class_list":["post-64392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-13094","tag-on-march-30","tag-polk-county-public-schools-and-junior-achievement-officially-broke-ground-on-the-ja-barnett-family-discovery-center-at-tenoroc-high-school-this-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64394,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64392\/revisions\/64394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}