BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Brevard County School Board on Tuesday voted to close Cape View Elementary School.
The district considered closing Cape View Elementary School in Cape Canaveral because of a decline in enrollment. The nearly 300 students at Cape View would be moved to Roosevelt Elementary School, about 7 miles away.
[SEE PREVIOUS COVERAGE BELOW]
A couple weeks prior to this meeting, Cape Canaveral city leaders made their plea to the school board to not close Cape Canaveral’s only school.
“It’s our only school,” Mayor Wes Morrison addressed the board. “It’s really important to us, and it’s a part of our community.”
[SEE PREVIOUS COVERAGE BELOW]
Morrison has said if Cape Canaveral doesn’t have a school anymore, the city will also, effectively, not have an identity.
Cape View’s been in Cape Canaveral since before the moon landing, but demographics have changed in recent generations. The average age in Cape Canaveral now is 59.
“The community is graying,” school board member Katye Campbell said. “It’s the same people who’ve lived there forever. Their kids are grown and gone. They’re still there, but there’s no more children,” she said.
“You know, obviously, it makes financial sense,” another school board member, John Thomas, said about a possible closure. “From a black and white, it’s almost a no-brainer why this is an option.”
Thomas, though, also said he thinks the new space race might change the city’s population again.
“My biggest concern is making sure that we keep enough capacity cause we don’t know what the space industry’s gonna do,” he said.
Since October, your Cape Canaveral Community Correspondent James Sparvero has talked to Rajesh Ravisankar, Cape View’s PTO president, about holding on to hope.
“Speaking to the parents and to the community, we are still not giving up on our school,” Ravisankar told Sparvero. He said it feels good to know the city council has supported parents.
[WATCH BELOW: Parents plead at Cape Canaveral meeting to keep elementary school open]
The proposal had drawn pushback, with more than 2,200 people signing an online petition to keep the school open.