Orange County Public Schools is preparing to decide whether to close seven schools because of low enrollment.
While parents remain hopeful the schools will stay open, one school board member says closures are likely.
OCPS board member Angie Gallo, representing District 1, acknowledged the community’s frustration over the potential closures.
“I don’t blame them for being angry. I’m angry that we have to do this,” she said.
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The district has experienced a 4% drop in enrollment over the past three years, which is driving the plan to consolidate seven schools, including two in Gallo’s district.
“This isn’t an easy decision, and we didn’t go into it lightly,” she said.
Over the last couple of weeks, community meetings were held at the schools’ closure list to inform parents and gather their feedback. Gallo shared her perspective on the meetings she attended.
“They were tough. I’m not going to lie. They were rough and rightfully so; we’re breaking up school work families, we’re breaking up friends, we’re taking families out of their community schools,” she explained.
Parent Martha Velez expressed her wish for the school to remain as it is.
“I would not like to see it be anything else, just the school,” she told News 6’s Stephanie Rodriguez in Spanish.
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Another parent, Dehavellin Williams, said she feels the district should explore other options before closing schools.
“It still doesn’t make sense to me, honestly. I think it should stay open,” she said. “I really just feel like they should just open up the zone more and then they would have more kids honestly, like it’s too many schools over here for kids to be going so far.”
However, Gallo said there are no alternatives and the decision is nearly final.
“What I will say is this: as a board member I wouldn’t be talking to you. I wouldn’t have gone to the community meeting, I wouldn’t have allowed the community meetings to happen if I wasn’t positive that we would be moving forward with the consolidations. I wouldn’t put my community and our employees through that,” she said.
The school board workshop is scheduled for Tuesday at 11 a.m., where they will discuss the community meetings and review survey results from families about the rezoning process.