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Teachers, staff and parents urge board not to relocate Highlands Virtual School to Avon Park High
Summary
Multiple HVS teachers and staff told the Highlands County School Board that moving Highlands Virtual School to Avon Park High School would disrupt instruction, reduce access for families across the county and risk enrollment and revenue; speakers urged alternatives, transparency and fuller cost accounting.
The board’s discussion of a proposal to transition Highlands Virtual School (HVS) to the Avon Park High School campus drew sustained public comment from HVS teachers, staff and parents who said the move would harm students and the program’s operations.
Trisha Boseman, a teacher at Highlands Virtual School, said she teaches more than 320 students across a wide range of science courses and supervises clubs and advising responsibilities. She warned that students who live in Lake Placid, Laurita and Venus would not drive an hour or more to attend labs, workshops or club meetings and that the change would damage accessibility and enrollment. “Highlands Virtual School is your ace,” Boseman said, adding that a small team of about a dozen teachers covers full K–12 certification and that HVS generated “almost $2,000,000 for the district.”
Other speakers echoed those concerns. A staff speaker who read remarks from Yvette Hendry said HVS requires quiet, consistent online classrooms and warned that placing the program on an active high school campus would subject instruction to lockdowns, fire drills and daily interruptions that would reduce instructional quality and could erode enrollment. The reader urged the board to consider alternative sites (including the former academy on Youth Care Lane) that better support virtual learning.
Lisa Saenz, who said she has taught in the district 23 years and worked at HVS, questioned whether moving a financially successful program during a district financial crisis would actually save money once renovation, moving and operational costs are accounted for. “If that's true, I have to ask, why are we considering relocating our school that has been financially successful, especially during a time when the district is facing a financial crisis,” Saenz said.
Zonin Cabrera, another HVS teacher, highlighted the program’s central location and the school’s role as a county‑wide testing site for Florida Virtual School, arguing that relocation would increase travel time, reduce the district’s ability to serve students across Highlands County and add transportation costs. Several requests for more transparency, a full accounting of projected savings versus the cost of renovations and clearer communications with staff were repeated by multiple speakers.
Speakers asked specifically how moving HVS would affect clerical and support staff jobs, whether the district had explored outreach to private or homeschool communities to grow enrollment, and whether the district had considered alternatives to selling or repurposing the current HVS building. The board listened; members acknowledged the comments and discussed facility options and the need for a long‑term plan for the building on 27th Street, but the transcript does not record a final decision to accept or reject the relocation during this meeting.
