Orange County School Board advances seven school consolidation rezonings to March 10 public hearing

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orange County School Board on Feb. 3 advanced seven proposals to consolidate under-enrolled schools, moving the items to a March 10 public hearing after a rule-development workshop in which staff reviewed maps, enrollment projections and special-education unit placements.

Stacy Neal, a member of the district rezoning team, summarized the process and timeline: "We are presenting 7 proposed school consolidation rezonings for consideration today," and she reiterated that community input will reopen tomorrow and close at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 17. Staff said any approved rezoning would take effect in August 2026 and that the public hearing is scheduled for March 10 at 5:30 p.m.

Why it matters: OCPS staff said falling student counts have left several schools operating well below capacity, forcing budget and service tradeoffs. For example, staff showed Bonneville Elementary with current enrollment of 368 against a FISH capacity of 938, well below the district's "necessary enrollment" figure of 680 used to minimally fund an elementary school. Similar shortfalls were shown for Union Park Middle (565 of 1,478 capacity), McCoy (462 of 834) and others.

Public input and data request: Steven Holtzman, speaking for Orlando YIMBY, urged greater data transparency: "I made a request that those student enrollment summaries be published in a machine readable format," he said, saying CSV or similar files would help community groups and researchers analyze long-term enrollment trends. Staff confirmed survey links and email channels (schoolrezoning@ocps.net) will reopen and noted petition rules requiring name and address on any mailed/hand-delivered petition.

Bonneville: Staff presented three options for Bonneville Elementary and recommended option 2 (with variants 2a and 2b). The proposal would redistribute Bonneville students to East Lake and Columbia schools; staff noted 3 families formally supporting the rezoning and 35 opposing. Staff reported an online petition with 1,074 electronic signatures but said it could not be verified because the submission lacked the addresses required by the district’s petition rules.

Board member response: Member Gallo, who pressed staff extensively on neighborhood continuity and ESE placements, voiced sympathy for students being rezoned and supported staff’s modified option 2b: "I support option 2 b," she said, while urging staff to preserve grandfathering and open-enrollment options where feasible to reduce disruption.

Union Park Middle: Staff proposed reassigning hundreds of middle-school students among Glenridge, Legacy, Roberto Clemente and Discovery to address a 61% under-capacity level. Board members asked for a traffic and safety update before the March 10 hearing; district transportation staff said a traffic study is in process. Transportation staff (Mr. Pacheco) told the board the team reviewed existing bus routes and "are able to provide transportation to the students that will be moving" from Eccleston to Washington Shores while a formal hazardous-walkability analysis is completed as required by Florida statutes.

ESE units and gifted-program questions: Wendy Ivory, the district’s executive leader for exceptional-student education, said staff sought to limit schools to no more than four ESE units and described how ASD, pre-K and other units would be redistributed (for example, some ASD k–5 units from Bonneville to East Lake, and full- and half-day pre-K placements moving between schools). Several board members pressed staff to clarify where gifted-program students would be served after rezoning; staff said principals and program placements will be finalized and shared before families must make enrollment choices.

Other consolidations and community response: The workshop covered Chickasaw (503 of 888 capacity; multiple ESE reassignments), Eccleston (334 of 684 capacity; a 308-signature petition was received but could not be verified under petition rules), McCoy (462 of 834; community members asked that the district preserve the Michael McCoy name if facilities are repurposed), Meadow Woods (516 of 837; staff proposed moving ASD units to Waterbridge) and Orla Vista (435 of 735; staff reported no community input to date). Where questions about buses arose, staff said existing routes in affected areas would be adjusted rather than adding wholly new routes in most cases.

Next steps: The board signaled consensus to move all seven rezonings forward to the regular board process and public hearing. Staff repeatedly reminded the public of the submission rules: petitions must be hand-delivered or mailed to the Office of Student Enrollment (6501 Magic Way, Suite 100B, Orlando, FL 32809), include name and address and be received by 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 17 to be counted. The district also published an online rezoning page (www.ocps.net under the school rezoning tab) with maps, data and survey links.

What remains unresolved: Staff will complete hazardous-walkability and traffic analyses and provide those results before the March 10 hearing; specific gifted-program placements and final facility-use recommendations (including possible ways to preserve historical school names) will be shared as principals and program models are finalized. The district emphasized that transportation eligibility follows the two-mile standard, hazardous-route exceptions under Florida statutes and Individualized Education Program (IEP) requirements.

The board adjourned after expressing appreciation for staff work and acknowledging the difficulty of closing or consolidating neighborhood schools.