![\"Orange](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/pwyrguwclcmzhh02.jpg\")
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ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools is looking at possibly closing up to seven schools as the school district deals with a “significant” decline in student enrollment.<\/p>\n
The School Board of Orange County will discuss the potential closures during a work session meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16.<\/p>\n
What schools are being considered? <\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Orange County Public Schools has identified seven schools for potential closure:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Union Park Middle SchoolBonneville Elementary SchoolChickasaw Elementary SchoolOrlo Vista Elementary SchoolEccleston Elementary SchoolMeadow Woods Elementary SchoolMcCoy Elementary School <\/p>\n
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n Why these schools? <\/p>\n Orange County Public Schools said its enrollment numbers have significantly declined by more than 8,300 students over the last three years.<\/p>\n For the 2025-2026 school year, the district had 5,539 fewer students, a drop of nearly 3%, the district said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fewer students can mean less state funding. OCSO said it anticipates a loss of $41 million in funding, though the number could be greater.<\/p>\n “The decision to close a school is not something that any single one of us wants to do,” said Teresa Jacobs, Orange County School Board Chair.<\/p>\n “It’s not something a superintendent wants to do. The reality is we may have to make some tough decisions, because we do not have enough money. When we have a school that only has 50% of the student enrollment, the cost of operating that school doesn’t drop by 50%.\u00a0<\/p>\n The district said operating schools below capacity is not sustainable.\u00a0<\/p>\n What’s causing a decline in enrollment? <\/p>\n According to the district, several factors have contributed to the decline, including:<\/p>\n Demographic changes in neighborhoodsLower birth ratesExpansion of Florida’s tax-payer-funded voucher programsFederal immigration policy changes <\/p>\n The district said operating schools below capacity is not sustainable.\u00a0<\/p>\n What we don’t know:<\/p>\n The district hasn\u2019t made any final decisions yet on what schools, if any, will ultimately close. Nor when will those changes go into effect.<\/p>\n The school board will hold a work session on Dec. 16 to discuss the “impacts of declining enrollment” and the schools being considered for closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35’S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n Orange County Schools works with recruiter to boost enrollment\u00a0 <\/p>\n Amid declining student enrollment, Orange County Public Schools\u2014the fourth-largest school district in Florida\u2014has been exploring different ways to boost its numbers, including working with a recruitment company.<\/p>\n The district has enlisted the services of Caissa Public Strategy<\/a>, a Tennessee-based company, that helps school districts recruit and retain students. So far, the company has been able to recruit about 1,900 students to the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the school board voted to extend its contract with the company. Under the agreement, the district pays the company about $935 for each student it\u2019s able to recruit or bring back to the district.<\/p>\n The Source: This article was written using information sourced from Orange County Public Schools and FOX 35 reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Orange County Schools<\/a>Orange County News<\/a>Orlando News<\/a>Education<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools is looking at possibly closing up to seven schools as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,47,115,6601,1335,9421,139,141,140,628],"class_list":["post-80976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-education","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-ocps","tag-orange-county","tag-organizations","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80976","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=80976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}