\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMore than 200 Orange County families are scrambling to find new schools for their children after the abrupt closure of the Legends Academy Charter School. The charter school\u2019s Board of Directors voted 4-2 on Monday to shut down due to \u201cunsustainable financial challenges.\u201d”He’s so intelligent,\u201d Angela Gillenwaters said. \u201cThey want to jump him from first to third.”But now Gillenwaters doesn\u2019t know where her 7-year-old grandson King will finish first grade. “My heart is crushed,\u201d she said. \u201cMy grandson’s heart is crushed because, like I was telling you prior, this is more than staff, teachers, principal, school. This is a community. This is a family.”Gillenwaters said the plan was for her grandson to attend Legends Academy Charter School in Orlando\u2019s Washington Shores neighborhood through 8th grade, just like his two older sisters. “Right in the middle of the school year is what bothers me,\u201d she told WESH 2.This upset grandmother attended Monday\u2019s ZOOM meeting when the school\u2019s Board of Directors voted to close the school during winter break.”They weren’t answering any questions about where the funds and stuff like that,\u201d Gillenwaters said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t something you just find out in one day. That’s impossible.”Gillenwaters said families were led to believe their children would be moving into a new building off John Young Parkway for classes at Legends Academy, but that never happened. “They could have kept that money they put into that to keep this going, to pay the teachers, to pay the staff, to pay whatever they need to,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they chose to spend that money to make this new building.”Orange County Public Schools sent WESH 2 a statement about the charter school\u2019s closure on Friday. “OCPS has contacted impacted families to offer guidance, support, and provide student enrollment options within our schools or explore other school choices through Open Enrollment. We are committed to supporting students through this transition so they can continue to receive high-quality instruction.”Gillenwaters said her preference is to enroll her grandson in another charter school. “It’s a smaller community, it\u2019s structure, uniform, and no junk food,\u201d she said. \u201cAll healthy food. I like that.”But she said most charter schools are full, and she\u2019s only been able to schedule a visit at one next week.”If this charter school isn’t anything near this one,\u201d she said, \u201cthen he’ll be going to the public school, which is walking distance from where we live.”The Legends Academy board of directors previously sent this statement to WESH 2: “For nearly 25 years, Legends Academy has been a place of learning, growth and community for students and families, made possible by the dedication of its educators and staff. After careful review of the school\u2019s financial condition and long-term viability, the Board of Directors made the difficult decision to close the school due to unsustainable financial challenges. This decision was not made lightly and does not diminish the impact the school has had on generations of families. The Board is working closely with the School District to complete the required closure process and support families as they plan next steps.”\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
More than 200 Orange County families are scrambling to find new schools for their children after the abrupt closure of the Legends Academy Charter School. <\/p>\n
The charter school\u2019s Board of Directors voted 4-2 on Monday to shut down due to \u201cunsustainable financial challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
“He’s so intelligent,\u201d Angela Gillenwaters said. \u201cThey want to jump him from first to third.”<\/p>\n
But now Gillenwaters doesn\u2019t know where her 7-year-old grandson King will finish first grade. <\/p>\n
“My heart is crushed,\u201d she said. \u201cMy grandson’s heart is crushed because, like I was telling you prior, this is more than staff, teachers, principal, school. This is a community. This is a family.”<\/p>\n
Gillenwaters said the plan was for her grandson to attend Legends Academy Charter School in Orlando\u2019s Washington Shores neighborhood through 8th grade, just like his two older sisters. <\/p>\n
“Right in the middle of the school year is what bothers me,\u201d she told WESH 2.<\/p>\n
This upset grandmother attended Monday\u2019s ZOOM meeting when the school\u2019s Board of Directors voted to close the school during winter break.<\/p>\n
“They weren’t answering any questions about where the funds and stuff like that,\u201d Gillenwaters said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t something you just find out in one day. That’s impossible.”<\/p>\n
Gillenwaters said families were led to believe their children would be moving into a new building off John Young Parkway for classes at Legends Academy, but that never happened. <\/p>\n
“They could have kept that money they put into that to keep this going, to pay the teachers, to pay the staff, to pay whatever they need to,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they chose to spend that money to make this new building.”<\/p>\n
Orange County Public Schools sent WESH 2 a statement about the charter school\u2019s closure on Friday. <\/p>\n
“OCPS has contacted impacted families to offer guidance, support, and provide student enrollment options within our schools or explore other school choices through Open Enrollment. We are committed to supporting students through this transition so they can continue to receive high-quality instruction.”<\/p>\n
Gillenwaters said her preference is to enroll her grandson in another charter school. <\/p>\n
“It’s a smaller community, it\u2019s structure, uniform, and no junk food,\u201d she said. \u201cAll healthy food. I like that.”<\/p>\n
But she said most charter schools are full, and she\u2019s only been able to schedule a visit at one next week.<\/p>\n
“If this charter school isn’t anything near this one,\u201d she said, \u201cthen he’ll be going to the public school, which is walking distance from where we live.”<\/p>\n
The Legends Academy board of directors previously sent this statement to WESH 2: <\/p>\n
“For nearly 25 years, Legends Academy has been a place of learning, growth and community for students and families, made possible by the dedication of its educators and staff. After careful review of the school\u2019s financial condition and long-term viability, the Board of Directors made the difficult decision to close the school due to unsustainable financial challenges. This decision was not made lightly and does not diminish the impact the school has had on generations of families. The Board is working closely with the School District to complete the required closure process and support families as they plan next steps.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 200 Orange County families are scrambling to find new schools for their children after the abrupt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53917,4169,502,39853,1089,53918,53920,53919,1972,139,53916,141,140,53921,11831,5956,2956,918],"class_list":["post-103746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-abrupt-closure","tag-board","tag-community","tag-directors","tag-family","tag-gillenwater","tag-grandson","tag-legends-academy","tag-new-school","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-charter-school","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-school-year","tag-staff","tag-statement","tag-student","tag-wesh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}