OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – To keep up with the rapid population growth Osceola County is experiencing, three new schools are being built simultaneously.
According to district leaders, enrollment at the end of the 2022-2023 school year jumped to 81,173 – up from 69,118 at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.
Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff said managing the population boom is the biggest challenge facing the district.
“It’s going to be very difficult for us to keep up with the growth,” Shanoff said. “The taxpayers have been very good to us in approving the sales tax that helps us with our capital projects.”
Construction on one of those projects officially got underway Friday. A $75 million Kindergarten-8th grade school is being built along Cross Prairie Parkway in the new Kindred community of Kissimmee, bringing much-needed relief to nearby Neptune Elementary School and Neptune Middle School.
Leaders say the three-story, 174,000 square foot building will be able fit nearly 1,500 students, and includes a media center, fine arts wing, cafeteria and gymnasium.
“This is a brand-new community,” Shanoff said. “So, what type of accelerator do you need in order to ensure that you can build community? Well, it really starts with the school.”
Crews recently broke ground on two other K-8 schools in Osceola County that are expected to be ready for the 2024-2025 school year. One of them is located in the new Knightsbridge community off Golden Knight Boulevard in Kissimmee. The other is being built in St. Cloud along Voyager Avenue in the new Sunbridge community.
Plans for a new high school are in the works along Nova Road in St. Cloud, which is slated to open in July of 2026. The district is also building new wings at St. Cloud High School and NeoCity Academy in Kissimmee.
School board member Julius Melendez says meeting the needs of a growing community goes further than just building new schools.
“It’s not just finding construction workers,” he said. “It’s also finding qualified, certified teachers and having bus drivers and attendants to take kids back and forth to school. So, when growth grows too fast, we would like the county to slow things down and allow the infrastructure to catch up.”
Melendez says the district has been expanding its search for additional teachers to other states and Puerto Rico. Leaders have also been working to convert paraprofessionals.
“But even when you do that you now have a vacancy with paraprofessionals,” he said. “It’s a domino effect that’s a vicious cycle. We have this extreme growth that’s so rapid, it’s really difficult to keep up with that infrastructure.”