The Gulliver Preparatory campus of Gulliver Schools is in the first stage of a $5.8 million dollar expansion program and the initial project — a 14,000-square-foot, two-story classroom addition — is almost complete.

John Krutulis

It will house 15 new classrooms, library and offices for the new international baccalaureate program, journalism room, debate room, band and dance room, and the new weight-training room.

John Krutulis, Gulliver associate director, said the new $1.8 million classroom wing is the first step in a major expansion for the Gulliver Prep campus, one that during the next four years will see the addition of a media center, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a maintenance building with offices and a workshop area, and an expansion of the cafeteria.

The new $1.8 million classroom wing at Gulliver Prep is almost finished.

"This new wing will allow us to house the various departments in specific locations within the school, rather than fragmented throughout the campus," said Krutulis. "Teachers will have their own classrooms and they won’t be moving around to different locations. It gives the kids and the staff more of a college atmosphere and that’s what we are, a college preparatory school."

Krutulis said during the summer workmen re-surfaced the gymnasium with a new wood floor, and gave the existing buildings at Gulliver Prep a $13,000 facelift, painting them with a new color scheme different from the school’s traditional gray and royal blue.

"We’ve gone with a khaki color and blended in a terra-cotta red in special areas like columns, planters, poles and architectural areas that protrude or stick out," he said. "And then we painted all the doors yellow, so it brightens everything up. The faculty loves it and thinks it’s great. The kids have had variously different reactions."

The Gulliver Academy began in 1926 as a winter school in Coconut Grove. The Krutulis family purchased the school in 1952 and moved it to its present location, 6575 N. Kendall Dr., in 1978. Gulliver has three other campuses — the Gulliver Academy, for pre-schoolers through eighth grade; Gulliver-South Miami, kindergarten through fourth grade, a school for aspiring gymnasts, and Gulliver-Pinecrest, a seventh through 12th grade facility housed at Temple Beth Shira on 120th Street.

Krutulis said the possibility exists that Gulliver campuses may start up in other parts of the state.

"We have people calling us all the time wanting us to start schools in their area," he said. "We’ve had calls from Boca Raton to Tampa and a lot of different areas have said, ‘Come up here and start a Gulliver.’ You never know, we could be all over the state before you know it. We’re looking into it."

The Gulliver campuses have students from 58 different countries and are open to all races and ethnicities.

"The majority of our students are local," Krutulis said. "We draw kids from all over South Dade, from Miami Beach and as far south as Ocean Reef. We have about 2,100 students on all campuses which includes about 650 students here at the Prep."