- November 27, 2024
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Volusia County Schools is considering moving the Riverview Learning Center to the former Osceola Elementary campus in Ormond Beach.
The Volusia County School Board approved a motion at its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 11, to discuss the relocation of the alternative education facility as Riverview's current building at 801 N. Wild Olive Ave. in Daytona Beach was constructed in the 1920s and is considered by the district to be "beyond reasonable repair."
The elementary population of the learning center is also not on the main campus, and is instead housed in a modular classroom building almost 10 miles away on Herbert Street within Silver Sands Middle School.
"We've looked at the cost of renovating of Riverview and it was in excess of $5 million, just to renovate that," VCS Chief Operating Officer Earl Johnson said. "My team went out to Osceola ... last week and met with the principal of Riverview to walk it and see what was best to meet the needs of the students."
In 2021, the school district merged Osceola Elementary and Ortona Elementary to create Beachside Elementary. The new school, built on the Ortona campus, opened in January.
The former Osceola campus, located at 100 Osceola Ave. in Ormond Beach, is currently being occupied by Tomoka Elementary as the district rebuilds the school.
At the idea that the district could transfer Riverview to the Osceola campus, Volusia United Educators President Elizabeth Albert relayed to the board messages of frustration from some Beachside Elementary teachers who taught at Osceola.
"They don't understand this," Albert said. "Some of the comments here: 'It wasn't good enough to restore for us, but now it is?'"
In 2020, when the district chose to close Osceola and Ortona in favor of the merger, there was a push by the community to keep Osceola open — including a $1.8 million proposal from the city of Ormond Beach to add portables to the Ortona Elementary campus to house Osceola Elementary students during a rebuild.
The teachers are looking for an explanation about why the district is considering renovating Osceola for Riverview, Albert added.
"I think they absolutely deserve one," she said. "Are they in a beautiful facility? Sure they are, but they had a home that they loved and now they've been moved so they deserve an explanation and to be respected that much."
Before committing to a relocation of Riverview, School Board member Carl Persis said he believed it would be wise to look at current school needs on the beachside and explore how the 13-acre property at Osceola could be best used to aid "landlocked" schools, such as Holly Hill K-8 or Seabreeze High School.
School Board member Ruben Colon said the decision to close down Osceola came because the building's condition was no longer favorable, leading the district to build a new school.
"To think that now, all of the sudden, it's good for anything that involves having students within it without the proper reasons why we did the original move, it boggles my mind right now," Colon said.
School Board member Anita Burnette agreed.
"It doesn't seem logical to me," she said.
School Board Chair Jamie Haynes said that when the district was looking at the merger, the idea was to take two small schools to build a new school. The district chose Ortona Elementary because it was a better fit for the school VCS wanted to build, she said, and Osceola was in better condition than Ortona.
The Osceola campus has never been empty, she said. Shortly after Beachside moved out, Tomoka Elementary began occupying the campus.
"We've said all along that when Tomoka went out, that we were going to have some intention of what to do with that property," Haynes said.
