- April 25, 2024
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It was too little, too late, to save Osceola Elementary.
The Volusia County School Board decided to hold steady in its decision to build a new elementary school at the current Ortona Elementary School site in Daytona Beach, and as a result, close Osceola Elementary in Ormond Beach. The decision came after a lack of motion at the board's meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 9, to reconsider the location of the new merged school, despite a significant push and a social media campaign by the city of Ormond Beach to do so, which included a commitment of $1.95 million to pay for stormwater improvements, new sidewalks and portables to house Osceola students at the Ortona campus should a new school be in progress.
Eight people attended the meeting to ask the board to reconsider closing Osceola Elementary, including three teachers and both Mayor Bill Partington and City Manager Joyce Shanahan.
One teacher, Kim Fischer, said she had been teaching at Osceola Elementary for 26 years. Her mother, also an educator, spent the majority of her 30-year career at Osceola. She called the school her second home, and said the reason teachers hadn't shown up during the Aug. 25 board meeting — when the Osceola-Ortona decision was made — was because they were all gearing up to open schools back up, working long hours due to the pandemic's impact on education.
“Please know we did care," Fischer said. "We care about the wellbeing of our students. We cared about their safety… You see, maybe we didn’t those letters or call in after listening to your meetings for hours, but we cared.”
The School Board also acknowledged that the Aug. 25th decision likely should have never happened at that meeting, as the agenda item only detailed that the board would consider whether the new school would be an elementary or a K-8. There was no presentation, and no indication was given to the public that the board would be voting on a site.
School Board member Ruben Colon said that explained the public's silence on the issue. Still, he said his vote to build the new school at Ortona Elementary remained unchanged.
"I realize, you know, we messed that up because [the agenda item] did not tell anybody what we were doing," Colon said. "But...was that going to change how I feel about it? The answer is no."
School Board member Carl Persis, the lone vote on Aug. 25 against building the new school at Ortona, had an uphill battle to convince his fellow board members to reconsider. He pointed out the pressure on the board by the architect and district staff to choose a site, and that the Ortona-Osceola discussion was occurring at a time where they as a board were also trying to figure out how to reopen schools safely.
“COVID just took over everything,” Persis said. “It clearly did. It took over our minds, and as far as the community was aware, school was out. We had already made our decision.”
Persis was referencing the fact the board was leaning toward building a K-8 at the start of summer 2020, and that they had toured the Audubon Park K-8 school in Orlando to get an idea of what a school like that would look like on the beachside. Then, the board switched back to building an elementary school after the district’s five-year-plan report predicted a decline of revenues due to COVID-19.
After a heated discussion, during which School Board member Jamie Haynes accused the city of trying to buy their vote — a statement Persis, a former Ormond mayor and whose wife currently serves on the City Commission, passionately rebuked — and district attorney Ted Doran jumped in to clarify nothing illegal occurred during the Aug. 25 vote, it was clear the majority of the board was not going to budge in its original decision.
Persis said he felt like he had failed his district. School Board Chair Linda Cuthbert disagreed, telling him he “fought valiantly for Ormond Beach.”
“This was a board decision,” she said. “You are one of five.”
The future of the Osceola site is still undecided, but Volusia County Schools Superintendent Scot Fritz said there is an opportunity there for the district, which at this time, has no plans to sell the property. He predicted the Osceola site would remain a place for education in the near future, perhaps with an emphasis on thematic teaching.
