ORLANDO, Fla. – More than dozens of students are now being forced to find new classrooms, and teachers are packing up with no severance and few answers this week after their Central Florida charter school, Legends Academy, shut its doors for good.
“They were like my kids. To see them all dispersed everywhere it’s just heartbreaking, even with the families,” said Dondrea Stevens, a former Legends Academy teacher.
Dondrea Stevens and other former Legends Academy charter schoolteachers are cleaning out their classrooms now that the school has shut down.
“It’s still heartbreaking because, like, right now I went into my whole classroom. It brought back all kinds of memories. I can see the little kids’ faces,” Stevens said.
Last week, the Legends Academy Board of Directors voted to permanently close the school during a virtual meeting, citing “unsustainable financial challenges.”
The decision displaced more than 200 students and left many teachers, including Stevens, without jobs.
“Nothing. We didn’t receive our PTO time. We didn’t get any of that,” Stevens said.
A spokesperson with Legends Academy confirmed teachers received no severance or paid time off. In an email, the school also stated that “all property purchased with public funds will be returned to OCPS as required by Florida law.”
“It makes me feel really upset and really confused because they never gave us an explanation on why they’re shutting the school down,” said Shayni Simmons, an eighth-grade student at Legends Academy.
Orange County Public Schools say at least one-third of displaced students have already enrolled in district schools, with charter schools like Central Florida Leadership Academy also taking in students.
“Right now, we’re in the process of enrolling five students from Legends, and we have a few more who have recently applied—that’ll be around seven or eight. We do have space available in all grade levels, sixth through eighth,” said Maria Cameron, principal of Central Florida Leadership Academy.
The district says items reclaimed from Legends Academy that were purchased with public funds will be made available to other charter schools.