{"id":6020,"date":"2025-10-16T04:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6020\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T04:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:02:07","slug":"lift-orlando-proposes-to-take-over-orange-center-elementary-school-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6020\/","title":{"rendered":"lift orlando proposes to take over orange center elementary school operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 LaQuinda Thomas and Alicia Rosario herded their children past the entrance gate of Orange Center Elementary [OCE] school as a boisterous group of kids chattered and waited for the crossing guard to whistle them through.<\/p>\n

The school, long a staple of Orlando\u2019s southwest side, earned rave reviews from the young mothers, who were impressed by the programming and engaging teaching style.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome school so far,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThe kids are always busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

OCE already stands out among public schools. Billed as a STEM magnet school, its fortunes have advanced thanks to heavy involvement by community nonprofit LIFT Orlando, which is focused on developing the community\u2019s prospects from education and jobs to housing.<\/p>\n

LIFT Orlando now wants to go a step further, and has submitted a proposal to Orange County Public Schools [OCPS] to take over operations of the public school altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a chance to let our educators be educators while we care for our children in every other way,\u201d LIFT Orlando President Eddy Moratin said.<\/p>\n

Under the draft agreement submitted to the district, LIFT Orlando would assume day-to-day responsibilities of the school and operate it like a charter school, making curriculum and personnel decisions. The school would gradually expand to serve grades K-8.<\/p>\n

OCPS would retain ownership of the school and get two seats on the newly created school board for OCE. Should the program fail, OCPS would be able to resume operation of the school, Moratin said.<\/p>\n

Florida law requires a vote by parents before any public school is converted into a charter school.<\/p>\n

Moratin said the new model would allow his organization to experiment with the curriculum without the bureaucracy of one of the nation\u2019s largest school districts, while allowing him to merge the school with his early childhood, after school and college readiness programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally advancing innovation through a public private partnership that still has transparency, accountability, reporting and all the authority that the district should have,\u201d Moratin explained. \u201cWe\u2019re not going through this kind of these for profit, private models that want zero accountability, zero transparency and zero partnership with the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an initial conversation about the proposal during a workshop Tuesday, board members received the idea warmly \u2013 even as their staff warned there was still \u201ca long way to go\u201d as they examined what the impact would be to the wider district.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the things that they\u2019re doing with the community. It is re imagined. It\u2019s different,\u201d Vicki-Elaine Felder, who represents the district, said.<\/p>\n

Moratin said he wants the agreement signed during this school year, which means he\u2019ll be under a tight timeline to convince more skeptical parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they trying to teach and what they trying to tell the kids?\u201d Charmaine Davis wondered. \u201cLike, what they trying to take over to make them learn better?\u201d<\/p>\n

If the model is adopted and works, the agreement opens the door for LIFT Orlando to begin working in \u2013 and eventually take over \u2013 the other elementary schools in the 32805 zip code, including Catalina, Washington Shores, Rock Lake and Pineloch.<\/p>\n

Each of those schools feeds into Jones High School. Moratin re-confirmed he had no interest in expanding to the older grades, a prospect that drew swift and strong opposition<\/a> from community members when it was floated as a rumor on social media back in May.<\/p>\n

Despite some hesitation and general unfamiliarity with the concept, many parents, including Rosario, were all in favor of the concept for the younger kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t care personally who\u2019s running the school,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re into the books and the kids learning and [accelerated reader] points, so that\u2019s good points for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 LaQuinda Thomas and Alicia Rosario herded their children past the entrance gate of Orange…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[147,145,28,6600,6594,6598,6599,6595,6601,6593,139,141,140,6596,6597,6592,144,146],"class_list":["post-6020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-central-florida","tag-channel-9","tag-florida","tag-k-8-schools","tag-laquinda-thomas-and-alicia-rosario","tag-lift-orlando","tag-lift-orlando-president-eddy-moratin","tag-oce","tag-ocps","tag-orange-center-elementary","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-stem","tag-stem-magnet-school","tag-they-love-their-public-school-a-nonprofit-wants-to-take-it-over","tag-wftv","tag-wftv-channel-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6020","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=6020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}