Orange County School Board members at a Nov. 6 rural development workshop reviewed three targeted rezoning proposals for fall 2025 and gave staff direction to move forward with the recommended alignments.

Staff presented maps, demographic breakdowns and projected enrollments for each proposal. The first proposal would shift middle-school attendance between Chain of Lakes Middle School and Carver Middle School; staff described two options and recommended Option 2, which expands a targeted area and would reassign additional students so feeder patterns align more closely. Staff said Option 2 would reduce some bus travel distances and better align the Eccleston Elementary feed into Carver Middle School. At the meeting, staff reported receiving two family responses overall for that zone (Option 1: two opposed; Option 2: one in support and one opposed). After discussion, the board provided consensus to proceed with staff's recommended Option 2.

The second targeted rezoning would realign feeder patterns so Citrus Elementary School's zone feeds Ocoee Middle School and Ocoee High School; staff said the change affects 48 middle-school students and reported one family comment in support. Board members expressed support and no substantive opposition was recorded on the record.

The third proposal would realign the Luminary Middle School zone to feed Lake Nona High School, changing assignments now split between Cypress Creek and Lake Nona high schools. Staff said 136 high-school students reside in the targeted area and that the district received 18 family responses (17 in support, 1 opposed). Several board members said the change would improve feeder continuity and asked staff to proceed toward the public hearing.

Staff emphasized the timeline: community meetings were held Oct. 8 and Oct. 21, the board's next public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 9, and the district maintains a rezoning notebook and an online rezoning hub (ocps.net under "school rezonings"). Staff also reviewed grandfather-transfer rules and deadlines: a student rezoned two or more times during a grade band may remain at the existing school under the grandfather transfer for certain cases, siblings are eligible to transfer with an approved grandfather transfer, transportation for grandfather transfers is not provided, and the grandfather transfer application deadline was listed as April 30, 2026. Staff said families may submit 1 input per household via the district survey, by petition (name and address required), or by email to schoolrezoning@ocps.net; the deadline to submit the survey for the next round was listed as Dec. 1 at 7 a.m.

Staff also reviewed capacity measures used in planning. They distinguished FISH (the state-maintained Florida Inventory of School Houses) from the district's Permanent Program Capacity (PPC): FISH lists state-assigned student stations under SREF (State Requirements for Educational Facilities) and can be adjusted by the state when rules change; PPC is a district-adjusted figure intended to reflect how many students can be served based on instructional programs and is often lower than FISH. Staff and board members discussed that some ESE rooms and center/adult-school stations are still being coded in FISH and that, when FISH undercounts specialized stations, the district may submit rebuttals or plant-survey exceptions to the state for correction.

No formal ordinance or final rezoning votes were taken at the workshop; staff sought and recorded board consensus to advance the recommended options to the public-hearing stage and to continue outreach. The board asked staff to bring the proposals back at the Dec. 9 public hearing for formal action.

Ending: Staff will post updated maps and demographic tables on the district's rezoning web page and present the proposals at the Dec. 9 public hearing, where formal board action will be possible.