VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Close to 1,000 Volusia County students may have to switch schools next school year. The school board is currently looking at rezoning proposals.
With more than 200,000 homes projected to soon be built in southeast Volusia, and hundreds more in other parts of the county, district leaders said they’re going to have to move students to different schools.
“We’re looking at the growth in Volusia County. We all know Florida is growing a lot right now, and it’s growing in some spaces more than others,” said district spokesperson Danielle Johnson.
The district sent News 6 data that showed last school year, 16 schools were over capacity. This year’s numbers are still being calculated, but 17 are currently projected to go over the max.
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The board is proposing to rezone four areas — and a fifth, which includes Debary, is still being researched.
“They’re looking at enrollments, growth projections, capacity at schools and which ones are overutilized and which ones are underutilized,” said Johnson.
The district said there currently are no plans or proposals to close a school in the county, but there are some ideas to change the makeup on a few.
Holly Hill Schools is one of those. The school is currently kindergarten through 8th grade, but the district is looking at turning it back into an elementary school and sending the middle school-aged students to other nearby middle schools.
Right now, the district is holding community rezoning meetings. If all goes through, the district will start notifying parents of any official changes in March, and it would take effect next school year.
“As far as the rezoning meetings that we currently have scheduled at this time, those are all about in and out — influx and outflux — of students, not about closures,” said Johnson.
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