School-rezoning plans spark protests by dozens of parents at a Tuesday meeting.
About 70 parents and supporters, many wearing blue Tshirts emblazoned with their ZIP code, attended a Orange County School Board workshop Tuesday evening about proposed zoning changes that will affect children who live in Dover Shores West, as well as other areas in and around downtown Orlando.
Many in the audience clapped when board member Nancy Robbinson asked her colleagues to consider allowing children in Dover Shores West to attend a K-8 school that is planned to open in the nearby Lake Como area. Other board members said they liked the idea.
The proposed changes are part of a broader plan affecting as many as 2,800 students who will transfer to three new schools. The schools, planned for the Audubon Park, Lake Como and Parramore areas, will include students from preschool through eighth grade. The new schools in Audubon Park and Parramore will open in 2017, while the Lake Como school will open in 2018. Even more students will be moved as part of a ripple effect. All of the changes would take effect by 2018. School officials are promoting the K-8 schools as a “small-school solution” for areas that don’t have enough children to fill traditional elementary or middle schools. The district plans to close Fern Creek, Kaley and Lake Como elementary schools, which may be “repurposed.”
Change is hard for parents, Robbinson said after Tuesday’s meeting, but she thinks her suggested changes will help make the rezoning process more palatable for families.
“I believe in the K-8 model,” she said. “I believe in the neighborhoods, in keeping them together.”
District staff initially proposed two possible zoning plans. Under both proposals, children in the Dover Shores West neighborhood would move to Jackson Middle. Robbinson’s request added a third option, which would allow Dover Shores West children to attend the new K-8 school in the Lake Como area. The new option also includes minor adjustments that will affect other parts of the county. The board will have another workshop about the zoning changes at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center, 445 W. Amelia Street in Orlando. Board members will make the final decision Dec. 8
Several Dover Shores West parents spoke during the Tuesday meeting, including Cody Stanley. He said when he and his wife moved to their home, they hoped their children, now 2 and 5, would be able to attend schools close to them.
“We believe this plan is the best option for safety, education and growth for the children in our neighborhood,” Stanley said.
Claire Bradley learned from a neighbor recently her son, a fourth-grader at Dover Shores Elementary, could have to travel to Jackson Middle.
“I was absolutely shocked,” Bradley said. “I never thought (we’d be zoned for) Jackson because it’s so far away in the opposite direction.”
anmartin@orlando sentinel.com