- November 28, 2024
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Though a study projects Flagler Schools could hit capacities in five to six years, members of the Flagler Schools Interlocal Agreement Oversight Committee are not sure the school district needs to begin building new schools.
A study by the Davis Demographics firm predicts that student enrollment in Flagler County's high schools and middle schools could exceed the district’s capacity by 2029. The firm also predicts that every 100 residential units built in the county will bring around 24 new students to the school district.
District Intergovernmental Planner William Whitson told the Oversight Committee at its first annual meeting Aug. 24 that the district can expect 1,000 more students over the next four to five years.
“It shows pretty clearly that we’re going to need more schools,” he said. “The good news is, we have a window. We have a horizon of the next five to six years to make those kinds of critical decisions.”
The growth stems partly from the projected birth rate and partly from people moving in from outside the county, Whitson said.
The ILA Oversight Committee — created in 2022 with representatives from the Flagler School Board, the County Commission and the cities of Palm Coast, Bunnell and Flagler Beach — discusses policies, reviews reports and provides recommendations for changes to an interlocal agreement between those government bodies on school district funding.
County Commissioner David Sullivan was one of several members skeptical about the projected student population increase. He said he didn’t know how many of the homes being built would be filled by families with children.
“There's no doubt in my mind that there are a lot of buildings being built and a lot of houses,” he said. “A lot of them are not going to be for people that have little kids.”
In 2022, the county government and the governments of Palm Coast, Bunnell and Flagler Beach issued 2,990 residential building permits, according to the committee’s annual report. The county is expected to reach a population of 148,000 by 2030.
Sullivan said the Davis report also does not consider recent legislative changes that impact education.
School Board member Colleen Conklin and several other committee members said they were concerned about building multiple new school buildings when population trends may later change.
The committee also met to review the first annual ILA report, as required under guidelines included in the new ILA approved last year. The committee elected to bring the report to the respective governing bodies for consideration before approving it.
The Oversight Committee will meet again no later than Nov. 15 to vote on the report and review final district enrollment numbers, due in October.
