001Evening everyone and welcome to the Orange County School Board's rule development workshop which has been scheduled for today, Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. Rule development workshop has been scheduled for the purpose of discussing targeted and consolid the targeted and consolidation of seven schools. During this rule development workshop, the school board welcomes public comment on the proposed targeted and consolidation of seven schools. However, because this is not a regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting, there will be no non-aggenda period during which the public would normally be able to address the school board on other topics. Should you wish to address the school board on another topic, please do so at our next regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting where we do take have a public comment period beforehand. Again, thank you for those of you who have taken the time to
002come out and join us. Let me let me check. We have the vice chair Salamanca here. Members Ferrant, Douglas, Vanos, and Gallo and Felder are with us. Is member Bird with us on Okay. Not. Yeah, she's stepped out. All right. So, all members are present and participating except for member Bird. As a reminder, board members will not be engaging in outside electronics or digital communication during the meeting so that we can focus on the matters before us. And to fellow board members, district staff, and anyone else who may be speaking, please make sure that your microphone is turned on and speak directly into it so our YouTube and Orange TV viewers can hear you clearly. All right, we will now pause for a moment of silence. I invite you to join us in the pledge
003of allegiance. And now for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Mr. Palarini, I know we have some speakers. Can you tell me how many we have? Yes, Madam Chair, we have one speaker. Okay. it will take me longer to read all the dos and don'ts then it will take to hear from our speaker. although only thing I would ask of those of you who are present we if you're in favor in opposition to what the speaker has to say just please keep your comments to yourself. if you wish to express support or opposition do so by showing a thumbs up or a thumbs down. With that, let's, let me
004turn the meeting over to you, superintendent, and we will take public comments as, do we know which school this pertains to, or is it broader than that? It's broader than that. Okay. All right. Dr. Bazco, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Today's meeting continues an important and very difficult conversation about enrollment facilities and how we responsibly plan for the future of our district. Over the past several years, OCPS has experienced declining declining enrollment with several schools operating well below capacity. This has created financial challenges as operational costs remain despite reduced student numbers. To address these issues, the school board is reviewing various space optimization strategies including the potential school consolidations. We have held town hall meetings within the various communities. Additionally, the board had a work session January 27th to discuss feedback from the community
005as well as the reszoning options. At today's meeting, staff will present the zoning options for the seven schools that we are proposing to consolidate. Included in the presentation will be items that respond to questions our community and board members had related to some of the specialized programs within each of those schools. At this time I am going to turn it over to Stacy Neil who will begin our resoning presentation. Good evening. Before we start, let me introd Good evening board members, Chair Jacobs, Superintendent Vasquez, all other OCPS staff that may be listening or present. Before we start, let me introduce my staff. With me are Thomas Moore, our demographer, Ranada Propshet, senior administrator of senior of student enrollment. Sitting at the table with us is Wendy Ivory, executive leader for exceptional student education and executive
006leader Greg Moody for school choice services. We are presenting seven proposed school consolidation resonings for consideration today. Before addressing each proposal individually, we will begin with a review of the resoning timeline. Community meetings were held on January 14th, 15th, 21st, and 22nd. Schoolboard work session was held on January 27th. Today, February 3rd, we are conducting the school board rule development workshop. The public hearing for these resonings will take place on March 10th at 5:30. All resonings, no matter how small, follow school board policy JC. The process begins when the superintendent officially starts the resoning effort. Our staff then creates a timeline, meets with internal teams, conducts research, and develops possible resoning options. Next, we share these options with the community, allowing for their input. After gathering all input, the school board reviews the options during
007a rural development workshop. Next, the board holds a public hearing where they vote on the resoning plan as the final and as the final step, we complete a resoning notebook to record the process and board decisions. This resoning process applies whether we reszone for a new school, a neighborhood, vacant land, or a school consolidation. To describe the scope of the resoning, we use the terms technical, targeted, relief school, or school consolidation. For a technical resoning, there are no students involved. The area to be moved is uninhabited land. For a targeted resoning, only selected areas are recommended to be moved and there is usually a small group of students involved. A relief school resoning when a new school is opening and it affects large number of students. A school consolidation closes underutilized sites and it affects
008large number of students. Information regarding resoning can be found on the resoning website at www.cps.net. Under the school tab, you will click on school resoning. From there, it will take you to the resoning currently in the works page where you will find the resoning timeline, community presentations, maps, data, and survey links. OCPS has in policy a grandfathered transfer to ease the reszoning process for families under certain conditions. For a student who has been reszoned by OCPS two or more times during a school level, that's K through 5, 6 through 8, 9 through 12 at the current address, or for a student who has been resoneed from an established school to another established school. In this case, the student may remain at the existing school instead of being res or assigned to the reszoneed school. for
009a student who will be in the fifth or eighth grade and will be reszoned to a New Relief Elementary or middle school. This policy will apply for students being resoneed from East Lake Elementary School to Colombia Elementary School, Legacy Middle School to Discovery Middle School, and Odyssey Middle School to Legacy Middle School. Students may remain at the existing school instead of being assigned to the reszoned school. Parents must apply by April 30th, 2026. Please note that transportation is not provided by OCPS for students on a grandfathered transfer and siblings may be eligible to transfer with the student who is granted the grandfathered transfer. However, sibling transfers are only valid while the grandfathered student attends the school. We offer three ways for families to share their input on the resoning. There's an online survey, petitions, and
010email. Input received from the community members have been summarized and provided to all board members. Survey links will reopen tomorrow on the resoning website. Community input can also be submitted via email at school resoningps.net. A petition must be handd delivered or mailed in the original form to the office of student enrollment at 6501 Magic Way, Sweet 100B, Orlando, Florida 3289. Each input must include name and a address, and it must be submitted by 7:30 a.m. on February 17th, 2026. Only one submission per household will be counted. We will now present seven school consolidations that would redistribute students to 17 additional schools. Together, these recommendations address under enrollment across 24 schools. Our first resoning is Bonavville Elementary Schools consolidation. Before we before we begin that since we have we have one speaker and it's not pertaining
011to a specific school why don't we go ahead and hear from the speaker. your speaker is Steven Holtzman. Okay. Welcome Mr. Holtzman. You may know you know where it is good because it doesn't work as well from here as it does there. Thank you. We Yeah. Good good evening everybody. get you a full-time job doing that. By the way, I here usually, so my volunteer, I'm just kidding. Good to see you. Good to see you, everybody. I'm Steven Hollesman, 32812. this evening for a change. I'm here on behalf of Orlando Yimi. I run the Urban Book Club for the group. We are a housing advocacy group that promotes policies that would lead to affordable housing. Mr. Holtzman, I apologize. What was the name of the organization? Orlando Yimi. so Yimi. Yes. In my backyard. Thank
012you. and we worry about all the factors that might get in the way of you know building more affordable housing infill housing. particularly you know as an education guy you know I'm usually trying to communicate to the group why they should care about what's going on in our schools. and I have spoken to the board as an individual about those enrollment summaries. you know in the in the past I think it might have been August of 2024 we heard worries about overcrowding with vision 2050 and the you know the school district pushes for for different zoning arrangements based on those overcrowding concerns. Now you know the plot has developed we're worried about undercrowding in some of those infill areas. and again you have to worry about just for everybody members of the public you have
013to worry about overcrowding and undercrowding at schools. What helps is having good data. about a year ago in the spring I made a request that those student enrollment summaries be published in a machine readable format. U right now they are PDFs. there is when you convert that into a CSV or an Excel file you know there's potential for errors when I'm editing the district data and making it work with the amazing free software programs. but why this is relevant to like Orlando Yimi and our efforts is you know I think a lot of one of the best ways to get your head around you know all the variables is to touch them and we've run u one-on-one tutoring sessions like you can actually make a map and look at the school enrollment numbers and maybe
014look at what schools are endangered for for coming years. so I want to reiterate that request. it would help our group a lot just the internal education efforts that we do trying to understand you know what that those school enrollment numbers are doing and again long-term and I do want to throw some kudos the GIS overhaul those assets those shape files and the school lists that is way better than the last time I dug into that it's just you know getting those school enrollment summaries that come out like every two weeks or or whatever really helped the workflow and some of those education efforts that I'm I'm trying to do in the in the group. and you know, again, we this is going to be a recurring problem. I want to make sure that the
015public has access to data in the right shape and the right files to make sure that we're as informed as possible. trying to balance all these numbers and play those games. So, thank you for your time. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Stephen. Mr. Holtz, Dr. Vasquez, maybe we can talk about that not necessarily here but in the coming days and weeks. I know for me it's always valuable to be able to have a digital version and sorry we can we did have conversations about this and there were some concerns about not having a PDF and the manipulation of the data but we certainly can have the conversation. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Back to you Miss Neil. Thank you. So our first resoning again is Bonavville Elementary School's consolidation. This slide represents historical and projected enrollment
016at Bonavville Elementary High, sorry, elementary school. The bars to the left of the orange bar show the last seven years of enrollment and the bars to the right summarize projected enrollment in the next 10 years. The orange bar shows school's enrollment in the current year. Bonavville's current enrollment is 368 and school and the school's capacity is 938, which shows that the school is more than 60% under capacity. The checkered portion of the bar shows how many students reside in the zone versus how many students attend. The red line labeled necessary enrollment at 680 marks the minimum number of students required to minimally fund an elementary school. Current and projected enrollment fall well below this threshold. The next slides will show maps and demographic data to help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools.
017Let's start by reviewing the map to orient you orient you with the current and proposed zones. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries. Schools involved in this resoning are Bonavville, East Lake Elementary and Colombia Elementary. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Purple is East Lake and green is Colombia. The next slides will show you zoomedin views of the areas proposed to move Bonavville Elementary to East Lake Elementary. There are 321 students residing and attending Bonavville recommended to be moved to East Lake Elementary. From East Lake to Colombia, there are 191 students residing and attending East Lake Elementary recommended to be moved to Colombia Elementary. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each school both before and after the resoning. The first column shows the name of the school involved in the resoning with
018the school's Florida inventory of school houses capacity. Fish capacity refers to the official number of students a school is designated to accommodate as determined by the state. This figure is maintained by district staff in the Florida inventory of school houses. a comprehensive database that includes every room in all district-owned schools. The next column displays student enrollment from October 15, 2025 with a percentage breakdown for race as white, black, and other and ethnicity as non-Hispanic and Hispanic. The third column shows the difference between enrollment and capacity. The fourth column displays the current number of students residing in each zone. The next column shows how many students will be residing in each zone if this resoning takes place. The next column is farms which stands for free and reduced meals. ES which stands for exceptional student education
019percentage at each of the schools before and after the resoning. The last column shows ELELLL which stands for English language learners percentage current and proposed. I will give you a moment to review the numbers for each school. We do have a option two for Bonavville's consolidation. This option keeps the grow development and the adjacent parcels along Chiliota Road within the East Lake Elementary attendance zone. Next is a zoomedin view of the proposed option. Number two, East Lake zone. Number of students residing and attending Bonavville Elementary School recommended to be moved to East Lake is 321. Zoomed in view of the proposed option two which is two Colombia Elementary Zone. Number of students residing and attending East Lake recommended to be moved to Columbia Elementary is 186. Demographic table for option two. I'll give you a
020moment. At the request of the board during the board work session, we created an additional option for Bonavville Elementary's consolidation. This option keeps the grow development and the adjacent parcels along Chuli Chiliota Road within the East Lake Elementary attendance zone and adds the community of Solace at corner lake to the East Lake Elementary School's attendance zone. Here is a zoomed in view of the proposed East Lake zone with the addition of Solace at the corner lake or at corner lake. Number of students residing and attending Bonavville Elementary recommended to be moved to East Lake Elementary School with this is 321 students. Here is the zoomin view of the proposed Colombia elementary school zone. The number of students residing and attending East Lake Elementary School recommended to be moved to Colombia is still 186 students. Here
021is the demographic table for the additional option. We have modified option 2A by adding adjacent parcels west of Solace Sol Solace development to the East Lake zone to ensure zone continuity by Corner Lake. Here is a zoomedin view of the proposed East Lake zone showing the continuity around the north and west side of Corner Lake. Number of students residing and attending Bonavville Elementary School recommended to be moved to East Lake 321. Here is a zoomed-in view of the proposed Colombia Elementary School zone. And the number of students residing and attending East Lake recommended to be moved to Colombia is 186. demographic table for option 2B. This slide shows the changes proposed the changes proposed zone for each option side by side. Superintendent staff recommendation is option two. Here again is the option or the data
022table demographic table for option two. We'll give a moment for Wendy Ivory. Good afternoon. Before I go into some of the factors that we looked at when we looked at proposed changes, I wanted to share the factors that we took into consideration for for the proposed moves for our ESSE units. We looked at the number of units at each school. We don't we did not want to exceed four units at each school. We looked at resources, example behavior specialists, staffing specialists, etc. We looked at the schools with the closest proximity to the proposed school being consolidated. And we're currently working on gifted feeder patterns based on the models that schools are currently in the process of deciding what models they'll be using next year and I'll be sharing that with board members once we have
023that. So on the screen you see Bonavville Elementary's proposed units that we're moving. They have one full day prek, one half day prek, and these are prek ESC, and three ASD K through5 units. So, the proposed changes are that East Lake Elementary will receive the three ASD K through5 units, and they will retain their one IND K through 5. We looked at trying to do a hybrid model here, but it's not recommended because it does hinder some of the resources that the school would need. Colombia Elementary will receive one full day prek from East Lake and that's a slight change after hearing some recommendations and one half day prek from Bonavville Elementary. And then Riverdale Elementary will receive one full day prek from Bonavville. Community response summary for Bonavville cons Bonavville's consolidation. There are three
024families in support of the resoning and 35 are opposing. Student enrollment also received a link from a community member to an online petition opposing the consolidation of Bonavville Elementary. There were 174 electronic signatures on this petition. As indicated in the community meeting, community input requires that petitions be handd delivered or mailed in their original form to the office of student enrollment and that each submission include the name and address of the individual. This petition however did not comply with the instructions provided at the community meeting as the signatures did not include addresses as it did not include addresses. As a result, student enrollment was unable to verify that only one submission per household was provided. As previously stated in this presentation, we will open the window for community input starting tomorrow, and all input must
025be received by 7:30 a.m. on February 17th, 2026. The community will have an opportunity to resubmit a petition if they choose. Any submission of input, whether it be a survey, email, or petition, must have the individual's name and address. Only one input per household will be counted. If a member of the community submits input through one of the other methods, including filling out the survey form via QR code or sending an email to school reszoning at ocps.net, net, then the party should not sign a petition. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. This concludes our presentation for Bonavville Elementary School Consolidation. Dr. Vasquez. thank you Stacy and team. madame chair as you can see we have offered an addition an additional option and we have also looked at the ESC request that was that
026we heard from our board member as well as some of our community members. So we are ready to answer any questions or listen to comments. Thank you Dr. Vasquez and thank you Stacy and team. I believe we have member Gallo on the queue. Thank you, Madam Chair. so this one was tricky. This one was They're all tricky, but this one was like really tricky when we're looking at the maps and we're trying to create consistency within the boundaries of East Lake. And most of the surveys that I reviewed are really, even the ones from Bonnieville are more upset that we're moving kids out of East Lake to Columbia than the responses that really said don't close Bonnieville. it there we have that group of of students and their families that do not want to leave
027East Lake because it's such a great school and go to Columbia, which is an equally great school, but I get it. You don't want to leave your friends. I went through this when my kids were little. You know, my daughter Lindsay was the first student to actually go through. She started a kindergarten at East Lake Elementary and she was the first fifth grade class to go all the way through before they go on. So, I understand how disrupted it is when you get reszoned. My oldest was in second grade and then Cypress Lakes came along and was built when we told it were told it wasn't going to get built and then all of their friends that they had made from Cypress Lakes like left and went to Columbia. So I get it. but if
028we could pull up like the original map because I want to point out so when we the issue the really one of the biggest issues. Can we go back one? I want to go to the original map of the like the how they're zoned right now. Oh yeah. Like the map the for east lake zone. No. Okay. This is okay. We can use this one. So if you look at this map this one doesn't really this shows Columbia. So it doesn't really show. Do we have a map of just what the East Lake zone right now? Well, that this Oh, look at the red lines. Right. The red lines. It's been a long day. so if you look at this map and you see the area of the students that the proposal will send to
029Colombia, these are the students that are it's this neighborhood is off of 50. it's in Buffalo. It's off of 50. So when we reszone because Columbia was supposed to be a Cypress Lakes Lake community school and at the time there were so many students in Cypress Lakes that we couldn't overload Colombia and we were already losing like 300 students at the time from East Lake and we couldn't further erode the enrollment at East Lake. there was a decision that we would bus those students past Columbia and into East Lake. that probably should never have happened because we were really going by even though I supported it. I was a PTA president at the time. I supported it because I didn't want to lose my teachers and I didn't want to lose my kids' friends. but
030we were you do the buses go right past Columbia to go to East Lake. And in order to clean up those lines, the only way that we can clean up those lines and make it make sense is to reszone those students to Colombia along with the students that are in Corner Lake Estates in those areas. And I know that's hard. I was reading through the surveys and several of them are fifth graders. Fifth graders are grandfathered in. East Lake is still going to be on the open enrollment. So, any student that wants to stay at East Lake, you will have to transfer your child. You'll have to take your child there can continue to go to East Lake if that's what they choose to do. and if you apply for a scholarship for the step
031up for students, you actually get a transportation fee because you're going out of zone. It's considered out of zone with the reszoning. So, you would qualify for a transportation stipend. I don't know if that's how that's helpful. I think it's like 500 a year, 750 a year. I can't remember. but it would help offset the transportation costs. so I just wanted to point that out that's why we're even having this discussion because I know it there's a lot of angst in my community about moving those students. They don't want to leave East Lake. They love their school. I don't blame them. I loved East Lake, too. Colia is equally as great, but it's hard. It's really, really hard to move to move schools. So, I just wanted to show that and show like the reasoning
032behind how it was just impossible to keep those students at East Lake. It was if we wanted the grow to go because when we started having these conversations and the grow was going into Colombia and then we were moving those students out of East Lake and they were going to Colombia, it was like disproportionate with the amount of students in my mind that would go to Columbia versus East Lake. And I was trying to make it more proportionate so that it was kind of more even and be as least disruptive as possible to the students. It's just unfortunately the way the lines were drawn for East Lake, it is going to disrupt a lot of students and for that I'm I'm I'm very sad. so can we go to 2B because I know the staff
033recommendation was two is 2B 2B 2 B is two. Sorry. Okay. Yes. So just a quick question. I know that 2A has the soloulless and if you look at the numbers between like option one there there's it's more proportion option two whether it's 2 2 A 2B are more proportionate in numbers between Columbia and East Lake and in what I would like to see isn't a huge influx of kids going to East Lake but so 2B because I know 2 A includes a solace and those are the parents that have already toured East Lake and are expecting to go to East Lake. explain to me, and I know I got an email on it, but I haven't I'm a little behind on emails. What other community did we add into B? Is it the Is
034it the communities that are on the left side of Lake Picket? Yes, it's it's the community, if you notice, there's Lake and it's the community to the left. So if we kept th that community they would go through they have to drive Lake Picket through the East Lake Solace area to get to Colombia still. There's already a student attending. that distance to the school is under two miles. It's less it's like a mile. Okay. if we in 2B we included it. so that whole area would go to East Lake, making it more than four miles, creating a bus. Okay. So, I support option 2B. I think that that one makes the most sense, and I know it's hard for th that those students from Buffalo and the students from the Corner Lakes area to be
035transferred out. But again, I want to say there is open enrollment. You can keep your child at East Lake as long as you apply by the deadline. if you choose to do so and you are grandfathered in if you have a fifth grader. so I know this is disruptive. It's disruptive for everybody and if we didn't have to do this, we wouldn't be doing this. But I support option 2B. I think it's the fairest. And I think proportionately with both schools, it makes more sense and even and it makes the lines cleaner when you look at the lines. you know that everything that goes up to Lake Picket east is going to come to East Lake and then kind of everything west of Lake Picket and down 419 would then go to Columbia and so
036the grow would be in East Lake and they would get the students from from the Grow. Again, we still have time to hear comments and suggestions from our community, which I'm hoping that people respond respond to them by the deadline. But right now, my option would be for 2B. And then I want to discuss the ESE because that's that's the other area that I had some angst on because at the end of the day, what I was asking staff was, can we disrupt the least amount of students possible? And unfortunately with East Lake, they're getting disrupted the most. Like even even though Union Park is spiderwebing all over the place with with East Lake, they're the ones they're really losing a lot of students out of East Lake to go to Colombia. So how many
037units does Colombia have right now? Because I think they have more than that's shown on the screen, do they not? They currently have two ASD units. So adding the full day prek from East Lake and the half day from Bonavville will put them at four. Okay. So with this East Lake and Columbia would both have four units. Four units, which makes makes sense. And we had a conversation this morning because we were going over these numbers and we I was really trying to get the one full day prek at East Lake because they're zoned for East Lake and I know that's what East Lake really wants. They want to keep that prek. but there just wasn't a way to do it that wouldn't have interfered with the IND units or the ASD units that were
038going there. and we talked through it. I asked lots of questions. There just wasn't a really good way to do it. And so what I did ask, I'm like, well, if we've got to move the full day prek, can we at least look at Columbia to receive it? Because at least it's still in the neighborhood. It's still in the area. Like if you know my area, East Lake and Columbia are probably three mi, four miles apart from each other. They're still in the same area. and they're not that far apart. Whereas Riverdale is it's you got to go across Alfa, you got to take 50. Like just busing the kids to Riverdale from East Lake would put them on a bus for a lot longer time. So if they're bus, they're going to be bust
039the bus to Columbia will be a lot shorter. It's a lot less traffic because you're taking all back roads to Columbia. So, the best that we could really come up with and the team was great. So, thank you Wendy and your team for all your help, but the best we could do is really move that prek from East Lake to Columbia. That's the only thing that we could really make work. And so, I'm sorry about that. I did try because I promised you I would look into it and I did try to see if we could and it just it didn't work. So, I support this plan and I support 2B and I look forward to hearing from the community. If they think I've got it wrong, if they want to see something else, please,
040now is your time to speak and let me know. Unfortunately, I we're not going to be able to keep Bifflow at East Lake or Corner Lakes. I just don't see an option where that can happen. that just makes the lines all jagged and we're with transportation, it would cost us more to transport the kids and transportation is an issue. We're already doing double back. So, we really got to do what's best for the kids and having the kids on a bus the least amount of time possible and that accomplishes that. So, with that, I'll end my discussion on my diet. Thank you, member Galla, for your thoroughess. For sure. I do not have anyone else queued up. So good to I don't know if superintendent or staff need said anything to the and you said
041this is option two. Yeah, but okay. So do you want to I support option 2B. Okay. So we have motion for supporting this and we just need consensus of So does the board have any other questions? We're good to support me go. Thank you. Okay. So we are good with this and we can move on to the next one. Union Park Middle School. Before I start, can I Before I start, can I just make a reminder that grandfather transfers are for current students attending K through five. I'm so sorry if I misspoke, but I was we in their survey results, there was a couple of fifth grade East Lake students that like, "My daughter's in fourth grade or my child's g and they're going to be a fifth." I'm like, "Well, you'll be grandfathered in."
042And it is underenrolled. I just want everybody to know. Stay up. Union Park Middle School's consolidation. Union Park's current enrollment is 565 and school's capacity is 1,478, which shows that the school is 61% under capacity. The red line labeled necessary enrollment at 850 marks the minimum number of students required to minimally fund a middle school. Current and projected enrollment fall well below this threshold. Next slides will show maps and demographic data to help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools. Green lines indicate current middle school boundaries. Schools involved in this resoning are Union Park, Glenn Ridge, Legacy, Discovery, Roberto Clemente, Clemente, and Odyssey Middle Schools. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Pink is Glen Ridge, yellow is Legacy, green is Discovery, purple is Clemente, and orange is Odyssey. The next slides will
043show you a zoomedin view of the areas proposed to be moved. From Union Park Middle School to Glenidge Middle School, there are 30 middle school students residing and attending Union Parks Middle School. recommended to be moved to Glenidge. From Union Park Middle School to Legacy Middle School, there are 293 students residing and attending Union Park recommended to be moved to Legacy Middle School. from Union Park to Roberto Clemente. There are 210 students residing and attending Union Park Middle School recommended to be moved to Roberto Clemente. From Legacy Middle School to Discovery Middle School, there are 104 students residing and attending Legacy Middle School recommended to be moved to Discovery. From Odyssey Middle School to Legacy Middle School, there are 199 students residing and attending Odyssey recommended to be moved to Legacy Middle School. Here is
044a demographic overview for each of the schools. Okay, this slide shows the current units that are at Union Park Middle School. We have two orthopedically impaired, physically impaired units. We're proposing to move both of them to Roberto Clemente, which would put them, they currently have no ESC units at Roberto. It would put them with two units. Summary of community response. There are three families supporting and 18 families opposing this resoning. If approved, this resoning will commence August of 2026. This concludes our presentation for Union Park Middle Schools consolidation. Dr. Vasquez. Thank you. and I have member Gudum. Thank you, Madam Chair. there was a lot of moving pieces to this one as well because it's a middle school and this one is tough in the sense that I mean we don't want to close either
045school but there was just so many different moving parts and the team you guys did a great job of really trying to clean up the lines and really look at the feeder patterns so that kids got to stay together because this transition is going to be tough because in middle school it's hard to find friends and it's hard to lose friends and then to go to somewhere new. and have to make new friends is extremely challenging for middle schools, middle school students. And so my heart goes out to them and I'm sad. but what this will do is ensure that the that the students they make next year, the friends they make next year will follow them to the high school. So when when they go on to high school, they won't be leaving more
046friends. They'll be staying with their friends from this point forward. And so that's a good thing when I'm looking at the and I don't know if we've had time to do the safety check out I know it was already in process out at Discovery but when I was reviewing some of the survey results the majority of them really were from the Discovery area where parents are extremely concerned about the traffic because it is really bad on Lake Under Hill and Woodbury Road at arrival and dismissal and I know that we were already looking at a traffic study so I don't know what the timeline is on that I'm hoping that we could have that information prior to voting on this on March 10th because we are I mean we're putting over a 100 students from
047legacy to discovery. the team the team has been made aware of the request and it's in process. However, it was brought to our attention that at one point Discovery had a lot greater enrollment and so there this is well below what they had even with the additional 100 students. That is correct. It is it was a lot they had a lot more students and I and I couldn't the makeup of and y'all email me if I'm wrong because I know you will. the makeup of that community wasn't even that like there it's not like a lot of more homes have been added when they had that number. Those homes that's an established community. So those homes have been there for a while and they existed when when those higher number of enrolled students went to
048Discovery. I think what's changed and what's made the traffic so bad is people learned about the cut through on Lake Under Hill and how to get to Avalon. So they're using they're either using Woodbury to go to Golfway and then cutting across and going the back way or they're going down Lake Under Hill taking this Waterford Chase and then cutting over to go to Avalon. And so they figured that out. So Waterford Chase, that side road is always just crammed with traffic. And I think that's what has brought more traffic to the area, not necessarily homes. so I think the traffic pattern has changed. I would love to I would love just to see what the traffic study has cuz I've been out there and it is it is it is challenging with the traffic.
049So, if there's anything that we could do to help alleviate that, maybe change the tra the way incoming cars come into Discovery to get them off the road quicker. There's two entrances. There's a bus entrance and then there's a car entrance. There is quite a long road leading into Discovery. that so maybe we could change change up the traffic. They do a good job. Like they loop people around when I'm in like they're doing a good job. But maybe if there's anything we could do to get more cars off the road that could make that would make the community a little happier. At any rate, I support this recommendation. I think this will be, it's very sad that we got to close Union Park, but I think we did the best that we could with
050the circumstances that we had. So, I support it. Thank you. Thank you, Morg. I'm up next. I had one quick question, which was specific to Odyssey. So, I see that we're moving about 200 students that are attending Odyssey to Legacy. Is that right? and then I was looking at the Odyssey numbers for the big chart and those numbers go up from 875 to 964. Is that right? Is that what I'm Am I reading that right? The proposed that would reside in the zone. Correct. Yes. So, what is there new buildings there? I was just curious on why like they're losing 200 students that are going to be going to Legacy. Why are they growing? Yeah, they never be. That's the everbe ever. Yeah, you're right. Okay, that's why. Okay, that was just a clarification question
051because I was like, where are those which is a great community everbby is up and still running up, but it's huge and a lot of families are very excited about it. So, I was just curious about that. I also obviously have a couple schools that are impacted and think that staff did such an incredible job trying to fix some of these lines and that feeder pattern. So, thank you for that. And I think I don't have any anyone else up for speaking. It sounds like we have Yeah. Okay. We have board board consensus. Yep. Board consensus. All right. That ends Union Park. So on to Chickasaw Elementary. Chickasaw Elementary School's consolidation. Chickasaw's current enrollment is 503 and school's capacity is 888 which shows that the school is more than 43% under capacity. The next slides
052will show maps and demographic data to help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries. The schools involved in the reszoning are Chickasaw, Englewood, and Deerwood elementaryaries. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Purple is Deerwood and green is Englewood. The next slides will show you zoomed in views of the areas proposed to be moved from Chickasaw Elementary to Englewood Elementary. There are 221 elementary students residing and attending Chasaw Elementary School recommended to be moved to Englewood. From Chickasaw Elementary to Dearwood, there are 181 students residing and attending Chickasaw Elementary recommended to be moved to Dearwood. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each school both before and after the resoning. Chickasaw currently has two full day prek ESSE, one half-day prek ESSE, and three K
053through five ASD units. So, we're proposing to move Inglewood has only a half-day prek. So we're proposing that they move that one to Pinar and then move the three ASD K through5 units to Englewood and one full day prek ESSE to Englewood which would put them at four. Little River currently has one preK half day and two EBD. So we they would receive one full day prek and that would put them at four. Aelia Park Elementary and Arbor Ridge would absorb one of the half-day preks from Chickasaw. So some of the students from that half day would go to Aelia Park and some would go to Arbor Ridg's existing prek ESC and then Panar would obser absorb the other halfday prek from Englewood. Summary of community response. There is one family supporting and seven families
054opposing this resoning. If approved, this resoning will commence in August of 2026. This concludes our presentation for Chickasaw Elementary Schools consolidation. Dr. Vasquez. Madame Chair, we're ready for any questions or comments from board members. Thank you, Member Salam. thank you and thank you Andy for looking into some of these. I think there was a lot of of ESC questions in the school. and I know we talked about this earlier this morning, but one of the things that is impacted because of the two schools I have, which is McCoy and Chickasaw, is on the gifted flow, right? So, some of the Chickasaw students, what is it? They No, the Ventura students go to Chickasaw. So, McCoy students are now going to be some of them going to Ventura. That's the new zoning, which we'll talk about
055later. but the Ventura gifted students get taken to Chickasaw and so I was getting a lot of questions from McCoy students that are in gifted programs saying where am I going to go for those that are zone for Ventura. Ventura's gifted program is in Chasaw and Chickasaw is also being consolidated. So one highlights the complexity of all the movement that we're working with and in our gifted programs some of them have it on school and others have it where students go to other schools for this and so one of the things that I'm trying to figure out as well as I talk to parents I think is an area they're really confused on okay what happens to my kid what school are they going to go to for gifted is the school that they currently
056go to open for enrollment like there's all kinds of questions and so I appreciate your staff looking into it as we figure out that flow because at least my two schools were near enough to each other where the flow of students were actually it kind of became circular and I was having a hard time answering the question because I couldn't track it either. so I I support this. that makes sense and I my one flag is that we continue to figure out what that gifted workflow is specifically that dynamic between Chason because both of them are being consolidated. So and that affects all the schools that are being consolidated because we have gifted students at each school. So once the principles choose their model for next year, which should be soon, I'll be able to
057give you exactly where they'll go once if if this is approved. Got it. And I'll I'll make sure I share it with everybody. And is there any timing wise because you know we have open enrollment registration and some of parents might not get the information on the gifted details yet, but they are wondering about the open enrollment. or is there we have a sense of urgency with it. So, it'll it'll be I'm anticipating even if I have to call the principles myself that we'll get it within the next week or two. Got it. Because I'm I'm some parents are anxious about obviously have to decide or register kids. They don't have answers yet on if there are gifted programs at what school and right open enrollment like that timing. I think it's is it's is
058causing some anxiety for these schools. So, thank you for that. But yeah, supportive. That's it, chair. All right. No further comments. We're good. Eckleston Elementary Schools consolidation. Madam Chair, just making sure we have consensus to move forward. Yes, we have consensus to move forward. Thank you. Apologize. Ecklesen's current enrollment is 334 and school's capacity is 684 which shows that the school is more than 51% under capacity. The next slides will show maps and demographic data to help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries and the schools involved in this resoning are Eklston Elementary and Washington Shores Elementary. The purple area is the new proposed zone for Washington Shores Elementary School. The next slide will show you zoomed in views of the areas proposed to be moved.
059From Aleston Elementary to Washington Shores, there are 298 elementary students residing and attending EK Eckleston Elementary School that are recommended to be moved to Washington Shores. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each school both before and after the resoning. I will give you a moment to review the numbers for each school. Elkston has no ES units that will require movement to another school. We have received input from two families opposing this resoning. We also received a petition from a community member. The petition received from Eckleston community contained 308 signatures demanding that Eckleston Elementary School remain open as indicated in the community meeting. Community input requires that petitions be handd delivered or mailed in their original form to the office of student enrollment and that each submission include the name and address of the
060individual. This petition, however, did not comply with that instruction provided at the community meeting as the signatures did not include addresses. As a result, student enrollment was unable to verify that only one submission per household was provided. As previously stated in this pres presentation, we will open the window for community input starting tomorrow, and all input must be received by 7:30 a.m. on February 17, 2026. The community will have an opportunity to resubmit a petition if they choose. Any submissions of input, whether it be a survey, email, or petition, must have the individual's name and address. And only one input per household will be counted. If a if a member of the community submits input through one of the other methods, including filling out the survey for form via QR code or sending an email
061to school resoning at ocps.net, net, then the party should not sign a petition. If approved, this resoning will commence in August 2026. This concludes our presentation for Ekston Elementary Schools consolidation. Dr. Vasquez, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. And thank you for your report. If you could go back look at the capacity the just take the slide back with washing shores number and Eson's numbers. Okay. Right there. All right. Now, members, even though I went to the meeting and I did my best to explain what we were really up against and the fact that many of my schools, if not all of them, many of them are underenrolled and the fact that the district we've had the money in the past so we could just continue to even schools were unenrolled be able
062to give them the necessary things that they need like guidance counselors, media specialists, and the like. But as our budgets got cut, we it we just could not afford to to continue to give schools that were under capacity as opposed to schools that needed those funds if they were like at 1,200 or 900 or 700. We just we didn't have the money to do it. Now, many of them are going to ask me this question and you've gone over, but I need you to probably do it again for those that are listening. Washington Shores has 269 enrollment. All right, you see that? And then Eklson is at the 334. So explain why again why Equinson is a school that's being closed and not Washington Shores. I don't want any of them closed but I just
063need you to because they I'm looking at these numbers. So Washington Shores albeit one year is the newer school. Okay. And they can accommodate the students. What do you mean it's the newer? Yeah, it was built before Equinson. I mean after Eckleston was built. Yeah. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know that. All right. So now, I also got questions about the children that's being transferred from Ekleston to Washington Shores. will there be buses because even though on the map it looks like it's very close but it's not that close. You have you go down all the way down Colombia and then you make that left on Bthoon which is the wash shopping center to make that other left on Rogers Drive then you run into Washington Shores. So will there be
064buses for the children? How how are we working the transportation? So transportation is provided to students that are 2 miles or more from their zoned school. transportation would also look into the routes for walkability. but I don't know if Pacheco is here to answer that better for me. The reason why I'm asking that and I I know that but the fact I know that at Eagle's Nest we have administrators at the schools those children have to walk down Kirkman Road. They are assigned to walk with the children you know and I'm just wondering if there isn't a bus if they have to Oh, there's Roberto right there. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Miss Neil. you know how to lower it, right? good evening again, board members. Yeah, just to just to give you a little bit
065of information that it will be in general for pretty much all the different consolidations that we're reviewing today. So what the team did when they were analyzing the the need of the transportation for the students that will be going to a new school first we looked at the buses that were serving that school. So in of course in Ekston in this case that they didn't have any buses but they will see what the distance is from those kids based on the information that we have on hand and the estimated number of kids that will be qualifying for transportation. So that was the first thing that we did making sure that we will be able to transport him in this case we are able to transport it. The second thing that we do and this is
066just on on the general basis is that there's there are those exceptions when some students that reside within the two mile radius are afforded transportation by us identifying what they consider to be hazardous conditions as defined by the Florida status. we will we will perform that analysis and if those kids based on that analysis we identify those some of those situations there we will provide transportation to them even though they're without the two mile radius and the third one of course is if is it is required by the IEP we will provide transportation for them but as of right now based on the measure that we have on hand based on the students without conducting any hazardous conditions walking analysis we are able to provide transportation to the students that will be moving from Eckleston
067to Washington Shores. I am concerned as we look at what may be hazardous to me well to a child may not be hazardous to me as an adult because I'm grown. I'm an adult and there's certain areas and situations that I can control as an adult. But when you have first graders, second, third graders walking through a gauntlet of situations that are not favorable for little children. That is my biggest concern. And see, I'm looking at the walk from Colombia. If they come down Aaron, make a left on Aaron. go all the way down to Columbia or make a left on area. Aaron, go at Pepe Kennedy Boulevard, then make a left on Brutin, then make another right on Colombia. I'm going inside the neighborhoods. but Colombia, Colombia Street is my concern. if the children
068that live in the Richmond Heights area those areas right o over Pine Crest area coming now the children that live in Merson Terrace that go to Washington Shores they crossing Columbia one time and there's a crossing guard through the wash shopping center and they're right at Washington Shores but they're coming from as far back as Eccleston near that area Carver Shores and that area if they're coming if where they were zone for Eccleston Columbia Street. That's a long street and a lot of things occur on that street. So, I appreciate you saying verbally that we're going to look at the hazardous conditions because those are some concerns that parents have with their children during the walking in. I don't know superintendent how that can be arranged but with eagle's nest because we know Kirk Monroe
069is not so much as it's hazardous as it is traffic and children you know crossing Kirkman road is fierce so they do have people assigned from Eagle's Nest and the children get to school back to school comfortably and safely but that is a real concern that I have and then also you Well, I do have consideration for the teachers and we know that because the way things are we're going to do our best to place teachers, but I'm hoping that principles will be open to receive the teachers, you know, that are coming because you're going to have more students and there'll be more classes, you know, if you're going to bring all those kids into to Eccleston, you know what I'm saying? I mean, into Washington Shores. But I really wanted to address have you
070address again why we're doing that. The fact that even after we get the students in Washington shores, we're going to still be all of the schools going to be under capacit populated, excuse me. But we're it's better. We're doing the best that we can, right? Am I correct in saying that? That we'll be under capacity even with that. But it's better than trying to take the money, spread it two and three ways, but just bring it into one school. And I think that's really why we're choosing Washington Shores because we don't have enough money to spread both and Eckleston. We can't. Madam Chair, mayor. Yes. So, a couple of points. I'll start with your last one. Yes. if we did not make these very difficult decisions to consolidate schools then we would have schools that
071would not be able to provide the same services basic services across the district. So you are correct in stating that. second as Mr. Pacheco alluded we will you know take a look at the path children would be taking. I'm not quite sure, but we'll look into it. about teachers from Eagle's Nest. No, from Echo coming to Washington Shores. But you mentioned teachers walking. Oh, yeah. I don't know if it's teachers, but they maybe it's the what you call security people or something. But Eagles Nest, they do have their adults walking with the children. I don't know. Well, we'll we'll look into it because not right. should not be OCPS employees because of the liability. We can't even have our when there's a crossing guard that is not there. We can't even have our staff. Well,
072don't let me say teachers, but I know there's some somebody that's an adult. There might be parents that Yeah, though there are I'm sorry. I don't want to put something out there that's not true, but I have seen it. There are adults and they need to have adults cuz that's Kirk Monroe is fierce. They need somebody to walk away with the children. Yeah. So we'll we will into the path that they are walking and assess if it's a hazardous conditions and if so then we would be able to take a look at transportation. So we'll Mr. PC and his team will take a look at that and then I'll come back to you. That's my biggest concern the walk. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. We don't
073have any further questions or comments from board members. Is there a consensus to move forward with this to the board? All right. Yes. Thank you. McCoy Elementary School's consolidation. McCoyy's current enrollment is 462 and the school's capacity is 834 which shows that the school is more than 45% under capacity. The next slides will show maps and demographic data to help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries, and the schools involved in this resoning are McCoy, Shannondoa, and Ventura. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Purple is Shannondoa, green is Vento, and the next slides will show you zoomed in views of the areas proposed to be moved. From McCoy Elementary School to Ventura Elementary School, there are 254 elementary students residing and attending McCoy Elementary. Recommended
074to be moved to Ventur. From McCoy Elementary School to Shannondoa Elementary, there are 143 students residing and attending McCoy Elementary recommended to be moved to Shannondoa Elementary. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each school both before and after the resoning. McCoy currently has two K through5 ASD units and we're proposing that they move to Lake George Elementary which would put Lake George Elementary with four K through 5 ASD units. We received input from one family opposing this resoning. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. And this concludes our presentation for McCoy Elementary. Member Sala. Thank you, chair, and thank you, Stacey. Well, always surprised when I see the community response. The community meetings had a lot more more folks there. but I feel like they felt obviously that I mean all of
075their concerns were shared. And one of the things I continue to hear about McCoy, I think folks understand kind of the necessity of what we're doing what we're doing. Not happy about it, but they understand. is the historical value of the name Michael McCoy to the area, to Orlando. and so they have asked me if there's ways that OCPS and its future usage to continue the kind of legacy of the Michael McCoy name in some way. And I know that we're talking about different potential uses there. And so I want to just bring that up as something that the community really thought was important to continue and we've had that from a couple of different schools including board member Felders. And so while there has been no final decision what's going to happen with the
076facilities, we certainly will take that into consideration and if we can we will. just as a side note, we will be bringing recommendations to the board about the facility use after the resoning, but we'll probably start to have meetings with the board members ahead of time in the event we are we do pass it and if there are any concerns about the proposed uses that we're able to address them in a timely manner. thank you. Yes. So that's one we can continue having those conversations. I will definitely advocate to to preserve the name and some of the history for these schools and clear definitely something that the community cares deeply about. But I'm I'm supportive. it's it's a really hard one as folks know. This was my elementary school and when you run for school
077board, you don't think you're going to be closing your own school. So really really tough one. but thank you staff. I think we did a as much as we could to kind of work through this and like George will be it's great school as well and families are actually excited. So thank you. Thank you member Salamanca. boy I hear you. I think of you know my elementary school and what I would feel like. Yeah, that's tough but it's a reality we're facing. So yeah, absolutely. consensus amongst the board that we'll move forward this to the board meeting. All right. Mallewood's elementary schools consolidation. Mallewood's current enrollment is 516 and the school's capacity is 837 which shows that the school is more than 38% under capacity. The next slides will show maps and demographic data to
078help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries. Schools involved in the reszoning are Metalwoods, Windham Lakes, and Southwood. The color colored areas are the proposed zones. Pink is Windham Lakes and purple is Southwood. The next slides will show you zoomed-in views of the areas proposed to be moved. From Meadowwoods Elementary to Southwood Elementary, there are 253 elementary students residing and attending Melewoods Elementary recommended to be moved to Southwood. From Melewoods Elementary to Windham Lakes Elementary, there are 160 students residing and attending Meadowwoods Elementary School recommended to be moved to Windham Lakes. The demographic overview for each of the schools. Meadowwoods currently has one full day prek ESSE, one half day prek ESSE, and four K through 5 ASD units. We're proposing moving the four prek the
079four K through 5 ASD units to Waterbridge who who currently do not have any units. Proposing to move one full day prek to Stonewick which would put them at four units with their two ASD and two preK. And Sally Ride will get one half-day prek unit to go along with their one IND and one orthopedically impaired. at the community meeting, what came up a lot was why are we moving the four ASD to Waterbridge instead of John Young or West Creek, which were closer. And the reason is because John Young and West Creek already are maxed out with their units. They each have quite a bit for I believe if not three, but four. Yes. So, Waterbridge was the next closest. We have received input from seven families, one family supporting and six families opposing
080this resoning. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. And this concludes our presentation for Meadowwoods Elementary Schools consolidation. Member Ferrant, thank you. each one of these really are just so difficult to walk through, right? And it almost feels surreal because I feel like just a few years ago, I even as a parent was sitting back thinking, why don't we make these schools bigger? We have so many portables outside and we should have just made them bigger to begin with. and now I think it's a little it's pretty wild. It's like the perfect storm and we're just seeing the results of that right now. And so, you know, I really want to thank the community and the parents who have been really involved and patient even and just being a part of this. I don't
081think it's easy for any of us. and just kind of trying to understand it. If you still have questions, I want you guys to reach out because it is you know, as difficult is it as it is, as you start to understand the why behind it, it makes sense. just isn't what anybody really is like wanting to do. the one question I would have I had reached out I know one big thing that came up at the community meetings was the travel across from like on Weatherbe across Orange Avenue and there's a the train that hits right there and the way the light is and so if we can just have like work with the county to see if there's a way to maybe kind of synchronize the light and the and the train. I
082don't know if that's even possible, but somehow just sort of make that a little smoother. I think the whole community as a just as a whole would love that because every time I go down there that you get stuck in that at that light. but really just for this you know what we're talking about here, my one question would be do we know how much it's going to cost to provide buses for these students? Because from what it appears, both schools, whether it's whether you're being sent to Southwood or Windham, kids are going to need to be bus. Correct. There's current buses that are running, so there's not going to be an additional you know, cost. those stu there would be additional stops, but those there's buses that are already running in that area. Okay,
083perfect. So they would just swing by and get those kids on their way to the You guys are so smart. You're always thinking of everything. I love it. so with that really I'm you know I appreciate also with the as far as the ESSE side. you know thank you for breaking it down helping us understand a little more because that was a concern of you know why aren't we picking another school that's closer? but again just trying not to overwhelm our schools with too many units. So, I appreciate that. and every question I had of are you sure like can we move these kids here or do something where we're you guys have already thought of everything. So, I feel like from everything every meeting I have the team, all of you, especially Wendy and
084everybody is really just kind of thinking ahead and trying to think of, okay, what would what could we do? How could we make sure that we aren't impacting so many kids? and really just keeping it smooth and steady as we walk through this wild wild time. So, thank you again. I'm fully in support of moving forward. All right. Thank you, member Fon. No other comments from other board members. So, there's consensus among the board to bring this to the general board meeting. Or Vista Elementary Schools consolidation. Or Vista's current enrollment is 435 and school and the school's capacity is which shows that the school is more than 40% under capacity. The next slides will show maps and demographic data to help illustrate the potential impact on students, families, and schools. Red lines indicate current elementary
085school boundaries. Schools involved in this resoning are Orla Vista, Oakill, Ivy Lane, and Eagle Nest, Eagle's Nest Elementary. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Yellow is Oakill, pink is Ivy Lane, green is Eagle, sorry, green is Eagle's Nest. The next slides will show you zoomed-in views of the areas proposed to be moved from Orla Vista Elementary to Ivy Lane. There are 189 elementary students residing and attending Orla Vista recommended to be moved to Ivy Lane. From Orla Vista to Oakill Elementary, there are 145 students residing and attending Orla Vista. recommended to be moved to Oakill. From Orla Vista to Eagle's Nest, there are 67 students residing and attending Ora Vista recommended to be moved to Eagle's Nest. The demographic overview for each of the schools Orla Vista currently has zero ESSE units that would
086require movement to another school. We have not received any input regarding this resoning. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. This concludes our presentation for Ola of Vista Elementary. Member Felder. Thank you. or Vista. That was one of the first resoning meetings that I attended and I must say I was very happy to see members from the Ivy Lane administrative staff at the meetings and they were engaging some of the parents with answering the questions. Many of the people Olivist's been there for so long. I met people lady I met who I think mom was a teacher there some years and she went there and you know it was just it was really a kind of communal kind of thing but again we tried to explain and show that we just did not have
087the money and the resources that they would need to have to be comparable with other schools in in Orange County District and we wanted to make sure all of our children got the maximum help and assistance and funding would not allow us to give that to the children at Ora Vista. but I am excited to knowe that I believe that the transfer with them into Ivy Lane would be a wonderful marriage. It is my hope that it will work well for them. Again, they're on Kirkman Road, but if you look at it, Ivy Lane is right in front of them. I mean, it's like a hop, skip, and a jump from where Vista is in Ivy Lane. so I think that the I believe that the merger will be good and will be safe. did
088we think we needed buses for them or what? How are we going to work that with the walking? so board member Felder, it will be the same process that we have done for the other schools. students that live within that two-mile radius, they can walk walk and then those that live outside would get transportation. All right. Okay. Well, thank you so much. All righty. All right. So without objection, we have consensus to bring this to the board for a regular meeting. That's it. All right, that concludes our rule development workshop. Thank you all for the excellent work you did. I know this has been difficult on you all as well. I remember vividly talking to John Morris. I hadn't been here for very long. Well, I mean, I've I've known him for so many years
089because he worked at the county and y'all stole him away. I tried to steal him back several times. That didn't that didn't work out. But when I came here, I was so concerned about the overcrowding and it is still a problem. as as Stephen pointed out, we have overcrowding, we have undercrowding. The overcrowding is not near the problem that it was years ago, but I was trying to figure out a way for us to build schools that kind of had flex space because we were putting portables. Well, and he told me he said, "We're going to look back and we're going to have schools that have empty rooms and some point we're going to have areas where we're going to have to close our schools." And I I was looking at he said, "You don't
090you don't understand the demographics of communities. They change over time. Brand new communities, the majority of young families move into brand new communities. I was one of them over and over again. I look at where I moved and as those communities age, fewer and fewer young people childbearing age move in. I look at my own neighborhood. We're kind of on like our second wind, if you will. But the number of kids coming out of our neighborhood is a fraction of what it was when it was first built. And people like me with four kids and my neighbor with three kids, it is a part of what happens in communities. So, that's a factor that plays into this as well as so many other factors that we've talked about. and so in this situation, we've just
091got to do the best that we can for all of our kids. And I know you guys have looked at this every which way possible. And I think each of the board members that have spent time with you, member for I think said it really well. What about this? Did you think about that? One thing I've have learned working with you all for seven years is you've thought of just about everything. by the time you get here, you've you have thought through all the problems and I know with the superintendent she's looked at at everything herself. and so it gives me a great deal of confidence making tough decisions because I know that there are the right decisions. So with that, the meeting is now adjourned. That was my way of saying thank you and
092you're awesome if I missed that point.