JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new school year means a new school for some students on Jacksonville’s Northside.

Jacksonville leaders cut the ribbon on the new Jean Ribault High School in Moncrief.

Ribault grads from throughout the decades took advantage of the opportunity to see what the next generation of students is working with.

The ribbon cutting for the new Ribault High School, built right on top of where the old one stood, brought out royalty, politicians and Bob White.

“I scored the first touchdown for Ribault, so that gives me a close tie to it,” said White, who graduated in 1959.

When White went to Ribault the year it opened, it didn’t even have A/C, and he was part of the team that chose the name and mascot.

“I wish I was 16 again and could walk into the new school like I was when I walked into it in 1957,” White said.

Many families sent generations of students to the old Ribault building until it was torn down after 66 years.

“We continue to keep coming back, showing that spirit as a Trojan for life,” said 1998 Ribault High Graduate Loretta Young.

After two years of construction, students will walk into a new school featuring culinary and nursing programs, a bank on campus, new library, classrooms, cafeteria and even a rooftop garden space.

“If you look at the oldest in the state and schools that haven’t gotten the attention they needed over the years, and this is a school that didn’t,” Duval County School Board Member Darryl Willie said.

The $58 million new school was paid for out of the half cent sales tax Duval voters approved in 2020.

Four other schools were finished in the past two years with the tax, including Southside Estates Elementary, which also opened this week.

“If you drive around this city, you’ll see your tax dollars in the shape of buildings,” Willie said. “This is just the newest example of that.”

Although it may be a new school, an old debate still echoes through the halls.

“I heard you when you said, Jean Ri-bow,” said Senator Tracie Davis during her presentation at the ribbon cutting. “We say, ‘Jean Ree-Balt.'”

Regardless of how you choose to pronounce it, students will fill the halls come Monday, when it will be open for the first day of school.