- April 16, 2026
Volusia County Schools is exploring relocating Riverview Learning Center, and the district is looking at Holly Hill School as a possibility.
Superintendent Carmen Balgobin said during the School Board meeting on Tuesday, April 14, that the district is going through a "reimaging." Looking at Riverview, she said, is phase one of the process.
"These are some of the nicest kids that you will find," Balgobin said. "But they come from a household where all the opportunities were not there for them. These are our children."
Riverview is an alternative education program for VCS students in K-12 with emotional and behavioral needs. In addition to classroom education, the program may provide students with needed counseling and therapeutic services. On average, about 30 students are enrolled in the program at one time.
Riverview was relocated to the former Osceola Elementary campus at 100 Osceola Ave. for the 2024-2025 school year. That move garnered significant community pushback, as area residents were concerned about the proximity of the program to their neighborhood.
Balgobin told School Board members on Tuesday that maintaining the Osceola building is costing the district about $3 million a year.
But so far, Holly Hill leaders don't seem convinced that moving Riverview to the Holly Hill School — the city's only elementary school, as it stopped being a K-8 in 2024 — is a good idea.
"I don't think an elementary school grounds is the appropriate location for the alternative school to be placed," Holly Hill City Manager Joe Forte said to the School Board. "I think it's too close. I think, more than anything, it's a perception. It's not a good perception and we've been battling perceptions in the City of Holly Hill for a long time."
Forte said he didn't have anything negative to say about the program, and apologized for what transpired between district staff and city staff at a meeting on April 9. Forte said he acted aggressively toward staff and apologized for his "knee-jerk reaction."
"But my concerns still remain valid," Forte said, adding that previous district administration and School Board members have made promises to the city that failed.
He worried this would be another one of those situations and asked if staff would look into alternative locations.
Balgobin said she appreciated Forte attending the School Board meeting as district staff told her they were "completely disrespected" in the meeting with Holly Hill.
"As I inquired more, we found out and they shared that they received erroneous information from some folks who shared that these are pretty much delinquent students wearing orange jumpsuits, and these students should not be with elementary students," Balgobin said.
On Tuesday, Balgobin said city leaders, including the mayor, toured Riverview. Holly Hill School's principal, she added, has also been receptive to the idea. The plan is to fence off the area and building where the Riverview students will be located so its independent from Holly Hill School.
School Board member Donna Brosemer said she wondered if the district wasn't getting ahead of itself on relocating Riverview.
"Unless there's some pressure on us to hurry up and sell the Osceola site, and I don't know that there is," Brosemer said, asking for a pause to work with city leaders.
The district is committed to working with Holly Hill city leadership, Balgobin said. She also criticized local blogger and former Holly Hill Police Chief Mark Barker for writing about the Riverview issue in his April 9 blog post, saying he "never verifies the sources."
"We're here to make decisions in the best interest of students, but clearly we have some adults in our community that are committed, truly committed, to disrupting the educational process and the success of our students," Balgobin said. "It's getting to the point where enough is enough."
In response, Barker wrote in his April 16 blog that Balgobin doesn't know who his sources are, nor how he vets information from employees at all levels of the district who reach out to him.
"In this election year, I’ve had enough of those in government and publicly funded organizations that we generously compensate with our hard-earned tax dollars hectoring us with a constant stream of 'you’re wrong, I’m right,' 'miscommunication,' 'erroneous information' while gaslighting constituents with virtuous tall tales as a means of disguising the blunders and secrecy of a bloated bureaucracy intent on covering its wide and increasingly obvious tracks," Barker wrote.
