- May 20, 2024
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Once the Tomoka Elementary student body moves out, the former Osceola Elementary campus will see another group of students: Those of Riverview Learning Center, an alternative educational facility for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The Volusia County School Board unanimously voted on Tuesday, Feb. 27, to approve the transfer of Riverview from 801 N. Wild Olive Ave. in Daytona Beach to 100 Osceola Ave. in Ormond Beach. The transfer will allow Riverview to house all of its students in one building.
Currently, Riverview’s elementary students are housed in a modular classroom building almost 10 miles away on Herbert Street, within Silver Sands Middle School’s campus.
“It’s really not conducive for operational purposes to have a principal over two sites that are so vastly far away from each other,” said Patty Corr, chief operating officer for Volusia County Schools.
After the Tomoka Elementary students and staff leave this summer — they are temporarily housed at the Osceola campus until their new school is built — the district plans to demolish four buildings. Two buildings will remain, and they will be able to house all of Riverview, Corr said.
The school’s attendance fluctuates, as students may be sent to Riverview for a nine-week period, a semester, or rarely, a school year, for a violation of the student code of conduct.
The alternative education facility has 80 students to date.
Last week, the district held a community meeting for the neighbors surrounding the current Riverview building in Daytona Beach, and Corr said one of their concerns was the building remaining vacant. But, Corr said, that will not be the case.
“We were just having a conversation before the board meeting that we are in desperate need of space, for office space, for personnel in all parts of our county and looking at repurposing the physical building of Riverview,” Corr said.
During a School Board meeting in October 2023, the board was informed that renovating the current Riverview 1920s building for students could cost over $5 million due to its state of disrepair.
School Board members Ruben Colon and Anita Burnette said the district should commit to making some improvements to the Osceola campus to better accommodate the Riverview students. While School Board member Carl Persis agreed, he also said that the board needs to be informed of how much those improvements will cost and what they will look like.
“We decided to abandon Osceola because it was going to cost too much money to renovate it,” Persis said. “And we said, ‘Let’s just build a brand new school’ ... I don’t want students to be a substandard facility.”
VCS Superintendent Carmen Balgobin said the improvements suggested for the Osceola campus would be minimal. District staff confirmed that facilities, like the cafeteria, were in good shape.
The Ormond Beach City Commission will meet on Tuesday, March 5 — but it won’t be discussing the proposed rezoning request for the former Tomoka Oaks Golf Course.
The hearing will be rescheduled to a later date due to an error with the publishing of the newspaper advertisement for the Tomoka Reserve agenda item, according to an email by city Planning Director Steven Spraker. A new date for the hearing has not been set yet.
The developers of the proposed Tomoka Reserve subdivision, slated to be located in the 147.94-acre golf course property in the middle of Tomoka Oaks, are seeking a rezoning for the property from a Planned Residential Development to R-2 “Single-family low density.” Their request will reach the City Commission with a unanimously recommendation by the Planning Board to deny the rezoning request, as the board reviewed the request at its meeting on Jan. 11.
City planning staff is also recommending the commission deny the developers’ request.
The former Bank of America building at 699 S. Nova Road in Ormond Beach could become a Circle K gas station in the near future.
The Site Plan Review Committee met with Circle K representatives on Zoom on Feb. 14, to discuss the redevelopment of the vacant property. The applicants inquired about demolishing the existing building for the project. Due to Hand Avenue’s “No Trucks” restriction, trucks will be required to enter and exit on Nova Road, if a gas station is constructed.
Is the Walmart at 1521 W. Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach due for an upgrade?
Design professionals representing the big box store met with the city’s Site Plan Review Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 21, to discuss a building expansion to serve online orders, building repainting and signage updates, according to the city’s most recent weekly update.
An open house for Enviro Camp at the Environmental Discovery Center is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 16.
Families interested in registering their children for the summer camp can tour the EDC, meet the animal ambassadors and ask questions. The camp will run from June 3-28 (Session 1 for 10-12 year olds) and July 8 to Aug. 2 (Session 2 for 7-9 year-olds).
