ORLANDO, Fla. — Seven Orange County Public Schools could be on the chopping block if they don’t get their numbers up.

As the school district continues finding ways to recruit more students, they’ll also discuss lower enrollment during a work session this week.

District staff shared they had a nearly 3% decrease in student enrollment, totaling 5,539 fewer students this year.

Their funding has dropped $41 million this year, they say due to challenges like lower birth rate, Florida’s tax-payer funded vouchers, immigration policies and demographic changes to neighborhoods.

School board members are encouraging parents to attend a work session Tuesday.

“At work sessions, there are no formal votes taken, so really you are coming into the audience, you are just sitting there, you do not have say anything. You can hear the conversation that’s happening between the district and the school board,” said Stephanie Vanos, who represents district six.

Seven schools are being considered to be shut down due to enrollment:

Union Park Middle School
Bonneville Elementary School
Chickasaw Elementary School
Orlo Vista Elementary School
Eccleston Elementary School
Meadow Woods Elementary School
McCoy Elementary School

Karen Torres, a parent with two kids enrolled in McCoy Elementary, says she took her kids out of charter schools and enrolled them in OCPS after seeing issues with a charter school’s education.

“Unfortunately it was not the high education that you would’ve imagined it should’ve been,” she said.

Torres is one of more than 1,000 parents who want to keep the school open. A petition was created online with signatures and comments from families.

“It’s very, very sad that we have to go through this just because of numbers. Numbers that could be raised essentially just by waiting one year,” said Torres.

District staff say they’ve lost more than 8,300 students in the last three years. The school board recently approved a contract extension with Caissa, a company to recruit students back to OCPS.

The work session starts at 1 p.m. at the OCPS building in downtown Orlando on Dec. 16.