The Orange County School Board voted Tuesday to renew its contract with a Tennessee company that helps combat the district's declining enrollment by recruiting students to return to public schools.
School officials say Caissa Public Strategy successfully recruited 1,932 students in the first year of its contract, earning $1.8 million. The contract pays $935 for each recruited or recovered public school student. Each additional student generates nearly $8,950 in funding for OCPS.
The new agreement with Caissa piggybacks on the company’s agreement with the Houston Independent School District and has an automatic renewal provision running until February 2028.
‘Fierce’ competition
Caissa K12 President Adrian Bond said the other schools competing for state funding are recruiting, too, against the district's traditional public schools.
“There is a push to get some of your families to leave at the break,” he told the board. “So they're here now and they're pushing to get them to come to their schools in January. So the competition is fierce.”
OCPS Executive Leader for School Choice Greg Moody said the district provides Caissa with a list of students who left.
“They go after those students to bring them back,” he said. “They may be homeschool, charter school, private school, but that's the list. It was 27,000 students that they worked off of.”
Overall, OCPS has 5,539 fewer students this school year, a 2.9% decrease, according to an email from the district. That adds up to a loss of about $50 million.
However, a running tally of district enrollment published online shows a steeper 3.2% decline this December compared to last. The summaries show total enrollment dropping by 6,686, from 207,701 to 201,015.
“[W]e believe that this is worth another investment in those dollars, at least for another year,” Superintendent Maria Vazquez said, “so that we can truly see, ‘Have we, you know, stemmed that tide?’”
Possible school closures
Declining enrollment has prompted the district to plan for and hold community meetings about possible closures at seven schools. Vazquez said the district will present its rationale for selecting those schools at a workshop meeting next Tuesday.
“Our goal is, as we promised our families, that we would go back to them in January, respond to their questions, and then let them know what the outcome will be,” she said.
The Orlando Sentinel reported the list -- and the individual school websites reflect that status with a “Declining Enrollment Info” page that attempts to answer parents' questions.
Those schools are: Union Park Middle School and six elementary schools, Meadow Woods, Bonneville, Chickasaw, Eccleston, McCoy and Orlo Vista.
