- April 18, 2024
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The Volusia County School Board is ready to do away with Osceola Elementary and shift its students south to Ortona Elementary, in Daytona Beach. But the Ormond Beach City Commission is opposing that plan, urging the board to keep Osceola open.
Ortona is about 8 minutes south of Osceola, and when the board decided to merge the two schools, it chose Ortona as its combined school site.
At the behest of the commission, Ormond Beach City Manager Joyce Shanahan addressed the School Board at its Jan. 26 meeting, telling board members that Osceola is a beloved school community.
"We are committed to supporting fundamental infrastructure projects and making sure that a foundational piece of the Ormond Beach community is not lost."
— JOYCE SHANAHAN, Ormond Beach city manager, addressing the School Board
"We are committed to supporting a seamless transition with the least impact on the largest number of families, and providing the greatest long-term benefits," Shanahan told School Board members at the meeting, urging them to reconsider. "... We are committed to supporting fundamental infrastructure projects and making sure that a foundational piece of the Ormond Beach community is not lost."
She added that the city had recently offered to support the school district with $300,000 worth of stormwater work at Osceola Elementary, and that Osceola has more parking spaces than Ortona and is larger.
But other speakers at the School Board meeting, including former School Board member Ida Wright and Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, urged the School Board to stick with its current plan.
Wright said she was disappointed in the School Board's willingness to hold a workshop on the issue.
"We are again spending money unnecessarily," she said. "... Even if they're willing to pay for what we have expended, is that the message we really want to send? Do we want to send a message that when votes are taken, hard work has been given ... that if someone comes in with money, they can purchase a decision that has already been made?"
Henry and others said that the Ortona students who'd be shifted to Osceola if Osceola became the area's only elementary school are more likely to be adversely impacted by the shift.
Henry noted that the district had committed to increasing equity in the district.
"The decision was prudent, it was equitable and it was financially sound," he said. "If we are genuinely concerned about equity, we should avoid sending students who suffer more significant challenges a further distance than those with traditional supports in place. ... If you change this decision, you will be adversely affecting children who have the most challenging time navigating the modern academic world. The decision was made in the best interest of the ... most vulnerable children — students who need your protection at this time."
He noted that the proposed shift of students from Osceola to Ortona had met minimal community opposition, and that the district had determined that the Ortona site is more resistant to hurricanes and flooding.
Ormond Beach City Commissioner Troy Kent had raised the issue of the school shift at a Jan. 19 City Commission meeting.
"That’s a huge blow to Ormond Beach," Kent said. "To take away an incredible elementary school in our community and to have our residents, and really the county’s residents, that live all the way up by Kingston Shores to have to commute all the way to Ortona Elementary has never set well with me. ... This is a decision that will affect lives for at least 50 years."
If Osceola were rebuilt, he said, it would revitalize the beachside area and attract more families.
Kent asked the commission to instruct City Manager Joyce Shanahan to inform the School Board of the commission's position. Shanahan had also done so with a letter months prior.
"I think if Ormond Beach has an opportunity to keep Osceola Elementary, then we should keep Osceola Elementary," Kent said. "Not just because I went there or my five brothers and sisters, or my mother was the first graduating class out of there. It makes more sense from a traffic standpoint. ... I just feel like all people really have to do is drive around Osceola Elementary, and then go drive around Ortona and look at how the traffic will stack up; look at the design that they've come up with."
Kent added that without Osceola Elementary, the city won't have any beachside schools.
Board member Susan Persis said she was also in favor of pressing the School Board to keep Osceola open.
