ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County’s superintendent joined school-board members, law-enforcement leaders and more for a back-to-school news conference Friday morning at Dr. Phillips High School.
Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez addressed the reduction in enrollment that Orange County Public Schools expects to keep seeing. Her statements Friday followed announcements weeks earlier that the district could have as many as 3,000 fewer students in the fall and could grapple with a $27 million reduction in state funding as a result.
"As many of you have heard, the district is expecting to see a reduction in enrollment. This is primarily due to lower birth rates and the taxpayer-funded voucher program that is being offered by the state of Florida," Vazquez said. “To increase enrollment and inform the community of all that Orange County Public Schools has to offer, we have partnered with CaissaK12 to conduct student recruitment for our district. Caissa’s primary mission is to re-engage families who have children who have left OCPS for neighboring districts, charter schools, home schools, or even private schools. Our partnership efforts will include direct phone calls, mass communications and other outreach to partners to parents of current, former and prospective students."
Vazquez was joined by members of the school board, Orange County Undersheriff Mark Canty and Orange County Public Schools District Police Chief Bryan Holmes, as well as Mark Watson with Food and Nutrition Services, Bill Wen of Transportation and Rory Salimbene from Facilities. Orlando police Chief Eric Smith was scheduled to attend, yet Deputy Chief Jonathan Bigelow spoke on his behalf.
Many repeated the call for more bus drivers, with classes in Orange County set to return Monday amid an ongoing shortage. The school district says the about-550 drivers on staff will need to use strategies such as “double backs” to ensure every student can get a ride.
Regarding safety, Holmes said the district is proud to start the school year with a full complement of school resource officers on each OCPS campus.
"The SRO program is the cornerstone of community policing, fostering trust, mentorship, and safety for all of our students,“ Holmes said. ”When a school resource officer builds a positive relationship with a student, it becomes a building blocks for that student’s future success and a relationship with law enforcement. That’s always a good thing."
Salimbene discussed the district’s choice to not build any new schools until 2031 due to declining enrollment, something that Vasquez later suggested could be reevaluated if any district schools find themselves over capacity.
“(It’s) something we reassess annually and we remain flexible to adjust as needed. That pause doesn’t mean that we’re not building new schools. We have active projects in place for replacements of the STEAM Academy, Orlando Gifted Academy, and we will begin planning for a replacement for Orange County Virtual School. We’re also designing a new facility for our largest technical college, OTC South.” He said. “(...) We are busier than we have ever been. We have over $1 billion in projects in construction this summer that include $90 million renovations at Colonial and Winter Park high schools, eight other large campus-wide upgrades. Thanks for the support of the voters of Orange County in extending the half-cent sales tax, we’re gonna launch five or six similar major projects every year.”
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.
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