BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A fight to save a school has become a fight for the entire community.
That’s how a local mayor describes the effort to stop Brevard Public Schools from closing under-enrolled Cape View Elementary School.
Since October, your Cape Canaveral Community Correspondent James Sparvero has reported how the school district is considering sending the 270 Cape View students to Roosevelt Elementary School seven miles away in Cocoa Beach.
Ahead of the school board’s vote on Jan. 20, Cape Canaveral’s city council will meet with board members two weeks earlier on Jan. 6.
At the last council meeting, Mayor Wes Morrison said the district hasn’t involved the city enough in this discussion.
“We are not Cape Canaveral without Cape View,” the mayor said.
Like families Sparvero has talked to, all of the council wants Cape View to stay open, even though it’s half-full.
“You’ve got a passionate parent-base, an involved community,” Morrison said. “Why are we staring 30 days out at a closure?”
Catching up with the PTO president, Rajesh Ravisankar said the community is still not giving up.
The district has argued it’s spending so much more money per student at a school that’s under-enrolled.
“I did not realize that public education has turned into a business model,” Ravisankar said. “We are hopeful at this point because that is all that we have.”
It was brought up at the last council meeting how other Central Florida districts are considering closing schools because of low enrollment.
In Orange County, the school district could close seven schools.