- April 18, 2024
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After almost six months of discussion regarding the consolidation of Osceola and Ortona Elementary, the Volusia County School Board has finally reached a decision: A new elementary will be built on the Ortona site, and Osceola will close.
The decision at the board's meeting the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 25, was not unanimous. The board voted 4-1, with Board Member Carl Persis voting against.
Persis told the board that he couldn't support building a new consolidated school on the beachside when schools like Ormond's Tomoka Elementary, Turie T. Small Elementary in Daytona, and Woodward Elementary in DeLand are in greater need of being rebuilt or renovated. Persis also felt the Osceola and Ortona communities hadn't had the chance to adequately voice their opinions on the consolidation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as board meetings have been virtual since the spring.
During the board workshop earlier that day, Persis proposed the Osceola/Ortona merger project be put on hold and rebuilding Tomoka Elementary be made a priority, a switch that caught several board members and district staff by surprise. Despite Tomoka being on the district's radar to rebuild for several years, the project has not been completed because finding a place to house the 750 students (construction while the campus is occupied is not an option for this site, according to district staff) in the meantime would be difficult.
“But just because something is difficult, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do it," said Persis during the workshop. "The Tomoka Elementary community, I think, deserves to be treated just like Deltona, DeLand, New Smyrna. I don’t see how we can just pick and choose and just leapfrog over.”
The rest of the board, however, felt that the Osceola/Ortona project needed to move forward. Architecture firm BRPH had scored both sites as it related to building an elementary of K-8 school; Ortona as a new elementary school scored the highest. School Board member Jamie Haynes said that a lot of work has gone into planning for the merger, and that the community and district staff have been waiting on the board to make a decision. Pushing the Osceola/Ortona project along doesn't mean the district can't look at Tomoka and make that its next priority, she said.
When initially no one from the public called in to speak at the meeting, Persis said it reinforced his belief that the community wasn't engaged, as the board was considering the closing of one of their schools.
Shortly afterward, one Osceola Elementary teacher called into the meeting, saying she was upset at Persis' switch of focus to Tomoka Elementary. Melissa Heller said that, while none of Osceola's teachers want the new school at Ortona, they have also been waiting for the board to make a decision for a while. That's why there were no callers for the item, she said.
“We are tired of waiting," Heller said. "We want a decision. This is ridiculous.”
Board Chair Ida Wright said that the Tomoka Elementary project was delayed because one of the plans was to use the beachside school site not picked in the Osceola-Ortona merger (which we now know will be Osceola Elementary) as a hub to house the students while the school is being rebuilt.
