This past September, I shared with you how difficult discussions were beginning to occur in the district, addressing the impacts of declining enrollment on our schools.  

As you have probably seen on the news, those discussions have continued and moved quickly. 

We saw a drop of about 6,600 students this year alone. Looking at enrollment over the last three years, district enrollment declined by approximately 8,667 students, representing a 4.6% decline.   

These underenrolled schools don’t produce the funding from students, yet still require spending money to keep them running, so the district has to compensate for the shortfall. This trend affects the district’s ability to staff and operate schools, offer a variety of courses and programs, and maintain existing facilities.  

Currently, there are seven schools that OCPS is looking at closing and consolidating with other schools. None of these schools are in our area.  

The schools being considered for consolidation have experienced declining enrollment for several years, and, until now, the district has been able to cover the costs of keeping them open. However, the current financial outlook no longer allows the district to continue to supplement the schools. 

The district is faced with having to reduce programs, personnel and support services at these schools or consolidate the schools and continue to provide access to all of the supports and resources they currently have, and in some cases, access to more services.  

I’m often asked why we are not seeing the same issues in our schools in this area and if you take a drive throughout Apopka, you see why: development.  

There is plenty of it, and plenty of new families moving into our area to make up for the ones aging out or leaving.  

Don’t get me wrong, we have seen a drop in enrollment in most of our schools. 

In fact, of all of the schools in my district, which includes Apopka, Ocoee and parts of Winter Garden, only four are over capacity — and not by much. That was not the case many years ago. 

The four schools are all in the Apopka area: Apopka Elementary, Zellwood Elementary, Wolf Lake Middle and Apopka High School. All have gained a few more students since September, except for Apopka High, which has seen enrollment decline and is only over capacity by 162 students, down from 218. 

While we do have a couple of lower-enrollment schools, they are not part of the current consolidation talks because 10-year projections show sufficient growth to fill enrollment gaps.  

Until development slows down, our area will need to continue adding capacity for our students, not decrease capacity.