- April 24, 2024
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The city of Ormond Beach is vowing to commit up $1.8 million to save Osceola Elementary.
Though the Volusia County School Board decided back in August 2020 to close Osceola Elementary in favor of merging the student body with Ortona Elementary to the south, Ormond Beach is seeking a second chance. As it stands, a new school is planned to be constructed at the Ortona site to house the combined 600 students, and last month, the School Board began discussing the logistics in moving Ortona students into a "portable city" at Osceola's campus during Ortona's construction.
But Ormond Beach City Commissioners hope that with School Board member Anita Burnette now on the board, the members could reverse their decision. City Manager Joyce Shanahan already told the School Board the city would pay for any needed stormwater work, and now it is ready to bear the full cost of housing all estimated 400 Osceola students at Ortona in portables, which could total somewhere between $1.5 million and $1.8 million, according to discussion had the commission meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
"It is more than unfortunate that this happened during a global pandemic, because Ormond Beach residents would come out screaming against this," City Commissioner Troy Kent said. "Everything about it just didn't feel right."
Kent, who attended Osceola Elementary as a child himself, remarked on Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry's comments on equity during the Jan. 26 School Board meeting, where he claimed Ortona students would be more adversely impacted should the School Board change their mind and choose the Osceola site for a new school.
Ormond Beach has equity issues too, Kent said.
Both Osceola and Ortona are Title 1 schools, meaning they both receive additional resources from the state due to its number of economically disadvantaged students.
According to 2018-2019 data by the Florida Department of Education, Ortona's disadvantaged students accounted for 82.9% of its 203 students. That comes out to roughly 168 students.
Osceola's percentage of disadvantaged students is technically lower at 71%, but with double the student population at 406, that comes out to about 288 students.
Mayor Bill Partington said that when he looks at this issue, every factor points to saving Osceola. He said when Ormond residents voted to approve the school district's half-cent sales tax, they were doing so in favor of improving their neighborhood schools, not closing them.
"What benefit is that to Osceola Elementary School?" Partington said. "Extinguishing it from the face of the Earth?... I think it was a lie for the people who voted for that half-cent sales tax, who thought they were going to get some upgrades to their schools."
School Board member Carl Persis was present at the meeting and asked to speak before the commission to give them a rundown of how the board arrived at the decision, and what Ormond Beach could do next. Persis was the lone vote back in August against choosing Ortona.
It's not about saving a school in Ormond versus saving a school in Daytona Beach. If both schools, which are about 8 minutes apart, were located in Ormond Beach, Osceola would still be the right choice, he said, since its student body lives all the way up to the Flagler County line.
“I am hopeful that when they see some of the new information, that maybe one — just one — will say, 'I see this differently now than I did then.'" Persis said.
The City Commission will hold a special meeting Monday, Feb. 8 to pass the resolution on committing city funds to saving Osceola Elementary. The School Board was planning to hold a workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 9, but was canceled by the district on Wednesday, Feb. 3.
This story was updated at 12:25 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, to show that the workshop by the School Board on the matter has now been canceled.
