Four Plans for rezoning

There are four plans for the rezoning. The office of Pupil Assignment seems to be recommending plan Four to the OCPS School Board. Plan Four relocates the most neighborhoods in Ocoee. Here are the reasons introduced at the September 10th Community meeting.

Plan Four may reduce the number of Students at both Lake Whitney Elementary School and Thornebrooke Elementary. The Office of Pupil Assignment would like to remove portable classrooms at the two existing elementary schools and reduce the attendance to 575 for LWES and 675 at TES. The new school (15-E-W-4) is estimated to have 700-750 students in plan Four.

Current Enrollment at LWES and TES 9/5/07
Lake Whitney Elementary: 992
Thornebrooke Elementary: 868

Without portables the schools were designed for the following capacities:
Lake Whitney Elementary: 514
Thornebrooke Elementary: 600
new school (15-E-W-4): 794

The office of Pupil Assignment said the plan to remove portables will enable the existing schools to utilize their facilities as planned. For example Lake Whitney was built for 514 students and currently has 992. This affects the students when they utilized the schools shared resources such as the Media Center, Cafeteria, Science Classroom, Music Classroom. Currently our son attends Kindergarden at LWES and has Science class, Art Class and Music Class every nine days. If the number of students were reduced perhaps he could have these classes more often. He also has lunch at 11:25 every morning.

The hope is that the number of students at Lake Whitney could be reduced but the Office of Pupil Assignment could not gaurentee that any of the four plans would reduce the number of students. It's possible that the new school could be built and the number of Students at a Lake Whitney stays the same because more families move into the neighborhoods zoned for LWES. The portables may not be removed if Plan Four is implimented.

Of the four plans, Plan Four moves the most neighborhoods away from LWES and TES into the new School.

As you look at the plans please notice that the yellow zone indicates the areas for the new school. Much of this area is undeveloped and only estimates can be utilized to determine the number of students who will attend. The areas south of Tomyn road are already developed. Crosscreek neighborhood is south of the new school on the east side of Maguire and is already developed. Estimates have been made about the diversity of the students at the new school based on anticipated home building plans and sales of homes that have not been built at this time.

Affected Neighborhoods

The following Neighborhoods in Ocoee may be rezoned to the new Elementary School:

Windermere Groves

Crosscreek

Brookestone

Wesmere
-Cheshire Woods
-Fenwick Cove
-Cresentlake
-Hampton Woods
-Pelican Isle
-Brookhaven Oaks
-Fairfax
-Laurenburg
-Carisbrooke
-Mill Creek

Sending Feedback to Orange County Public Schools

Your Input must be received by the office of "PUPIL ASSIGNMENT" by September 28, 2007.

The OCPS School Board will be deciding how to zone the neighboorhoods near Maguire for the relief Elementary School. It is possible for you to provide feedback to the School Board via the Office of Pupil Assignment. This group of OCPS Employees have designed four zoning plans for the Board to consider. It is important for you to provide your input in writing by September 28, 2007. Much of the Information provided before this date will be included in the Office of Pupil Assignment's report to the board.

Here is a link to the pdf document which can be used to provide your feedback:
https://www.ocps.net/fs/governmental/pupil/Documents/15%20E%20W%204%20%20INPUT%20SHEET%2009%2010%2007.pdf

This link is also attached to the Blog.

Your feedback should be sent to:
Orange County Public Schools
Office of Pupil Assignment
445 W. Amelia Street
Orlando, Florida 32801

Fax #: 407 317-3298

Simpsos2@ocps.net (email address for Office of Pupil Assignment)

You may also want to contact Karen Ardaman, who is our Orange County School Board Representative. She represents District 4 which is the Southwest section of Orange County. She is one of seven School Board members who will make the decision about rezoning for the new elementary school. Members are elected for four-year terms and must reside in the district they represent. That means only Karen Ardaman lives in our district. By definition the other six members do not live in Ocoee and they will be deciding how neighborhoods for our new elementary will be zoned.

Her email address is ardamak@ocps.net
407 317-3236
A link to more of her information is provided in this blog's LINKS section.

Re: #15-E-W-4 Elementary Relief School Rezoning

15-E-W-4 Ocoee Elementary School Relief

Orange County Public Schools is rezoning the neighborhoods near Maguire Road in Ocoee, Florida in order to build a relief school for Lake Whitney Elementary and Thornebrooke Elementary Schools. This Blog is designed to help parents understand the plans presented by the County to the School Board. The new school will open in less than a year. Ground has been broken, the foundation is being laid and the plan is to have the new school built and open to students for the fall 2008-2009 school year.

Many of the notes for this blog are from information giving to the community at the Community Meeting held Monday, September 10, 2007 a the Educational Leadership Center, 445 W. Amelia Street, Orlando, FL

Some of the students now attending Thornebrooke and Lake Whitney Elementary Schools will be rezoned and will attend the new school (15-E-W-4) starting next fall.

The new zone could affect the following Elementary Schools:

Frangus Elementary School
Lake Whitney Elementary School
Maxey Elementary School
Thornebrooke Elementary School
Whispering Oak Elementary School



Timeline for this Fall (2007)

Tuesday, October 2nd at 4:30 p.m. School Board Rule Development Workshop

Sunday, October 14th OCPS to Advertise Public Hearing in the Orlando Sentinel: School Board Meeting.

Sunday, October 28th advertise Meeting with Superintendent

Monday, November 12th: Meeting with the Executive Cabinet

Tuesday, November 13th: School Board Meeting - Public Hearing at 5:30 p.m.


As you can see from the timeline the rezoning decision will be made prior to the new year. The Board will rezone for the new Elementary school soon. It's important to communicate your concerns and desires soon. Please utilize this Blog to become informed and to inform your neighbors. Please post your ideas and opinions and post facts about the plan for rezoning.