Orange County Public Schools received a flood of 53 notices this week from charter schools to move into underused public schools — but very few are expected to stick.
Documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show the notices came from just two companies and targeted 45 Orange County public schools. However, many of the notices were misaddressed, filed by an unauthorized company or aimed at campuses that don’t qualify.
District leaders say only about five schools could be impacted.
The so-called co-location notices come as the state expands its controversial “Schools of Hope” program, with the new rules taking effect on Tuesday, Nov. 4. A new law allows approved charter school operators to occupy “persistently low-performing” public schools with available space rent-free, with the school district picking up the bill for food, custodians and transportation.
The charter school operators seek to capitalize on the downward trend in public school enrollment seen statewide and in Central Florida, which districts attribute to declining birth rates and increased use of the state’s voucher program for private and homeschool scholarships. Orange lost about 6,500 students this year, while Broward and Miami Dade lost 10,000 and 13,000 students respectively.
Districts throughout Florida received an influx of “Schools of Hope” notices this week. Broward School District received 127 requests for 90 campuses, Palm Beach County received nearly 70 requests for 46 schools, and Pinellas County received 56 requests for 37 schools.
Orange School Board Member Stephanie Vanos called the notices “hastily prepared” with “poor research” which she said mirrors the state’s chaotic rollout of Schools of Hope.
“I don’t even know if the people who drafted this fully understand what this law does,” she said.
Vanos said it feels like charter school companies are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Nine requests came from Miami-based Mater Academy on Tuesday to occupy Bonneville Elementary, Hungerford Elementary, NeoCity Academy, Rock Lake Elementary, Washington Shores Primary Learning Center, Washington Shores Elementary, Prairie Lake Elementary, Pine Castle Elementary and Ivey Lane Elementary.
But NeoCity Academy isn’t in Orange County, and Pine Castle Elementary has state approval to be demolished. Several other schools Mater requested are not “Schools of Hope” eligible. None of the nine schools are “persistently low-performing” according to state standards.
The schools that do appear eligible are Rock Lake Elementary, Washington Shores Elementary, Washington Shores Primary Learning Center, Ivey Lane Elementary and Hungerford Elementary, Vanos said. The five schools have spare capacity and would qualify under the legislation because they are within a five-mile radius of a different “persistently low-performing” school.
A tenth school that Mater served notice on earlier, Ridgewood Park Elementary, also appears to be eligible.
The other 44 requests sent to Orange County came from Miami-based BridgePrep Academy, which has an existing charter school in Orange and two in Osceola County.
BridgePrep is not on the state’s approved list of “Schools of Hope” operators, but is currently being reviewed by the state, so it’s unclear if its notice to occupy is valid. BridgePrep has filed several notices in other Florida schools districts as well.
Critics called have called efforts from Mater and other charter schools a “land grab” that would siphon resources from traditional public schools.
OCPS is already having conversations about consolidating low-enrollment schools this year, but the notices are forcing the district to speed up the process or risk losing the facility to a charter school, Vanos said.
“The way to protect your neighborhood school from not being co-located is to go to it, and encourage your neighbors and your community members to also go to it. That’s the only protection that you have from these schools not squatting inside your school,” she said.