The Orange County School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to sell the former Hungerford School property to Dr. Phillips Charities, despite dissent from the Eatonville Town Council and some residents.
Dr. Phillips will buy the former school property, which is more than 100 acres, for over $1 million dollars.
Under the contract, Dr. Phillips Charities will turn the land into an early learning center, affordable housing and a museum, among other things.
The first land deal for the property fell through in 2023, when the developer pulled out. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community sued the district for the land, in an attempt to get ownership for Eatonville. But that lawsuit was thrown out in 2025.
The site of the former school has sat dormant and abandoned since it was demolished by Orange County Public Schools during the pandemic.
The school itself had already closed almost a decade earlier in 2009. But before that, the school educated generations of the town’s residents. It opened in the late 1800s. Hungerford was the first school for Black children in Central Florida.
The fact that the property is currently vacant is the main reason most of the board members gave for approving the sale.
Board member Vicki-Elaine Felder explained it this way: with current Florida laws what they are, along with recently filed legislation, it has become easier for the state to take over unused property, including at schools. If the state takes over, nobody locally has a say in what happens to the former Hungerford site.
“I so do not want the state or some random charter school to come with property that's been in the hands of people of color for hundreds … or more years to come and take it,” Felder said.
Tensions over the future of the site were reignited after the Eatonville Town Council claimed that it was not included in the negotiations that resulted in the sale of the land to Dr. Phillips. The council’s request to be given an additional 90 days to consider the proposed contract was rejected.
Councilwoman Wanda Randolph highlighted these concerns at the meeting prior to the board vote.
“Everything that we've asked for has been rejected upon your means as to how you view what we need in Eatonville. You rejected our extension for 90 days to collaborate for a partner plan between Dr Phillips and the town of Eatonville that didn't go through. You rejected also the request for the town of Eatonville to own the property, to own the land,” Randolph said.
And then there are residents like John Beacham who have fought for years for the town to own the property, who spoke out against the sale as well.
“It is historic. Historic. Eatonville is just as important as Spanish history in St Augustine. In Eatonville, you have American history,” Beacham said.
The town and the school district have been going back and forth over the Hungerford School site for years.
Chair Teresa Jacobs said that, despite these divisions, now that the sale is over, it’s time to come together to collaborate on the future of the site.
“However anybody feels about how we got here, there's a huge process ahead of us, and I would encourage everyone to work together with Dr. Phillips Charities. A lot of collaboration, a lot of decisions, important decisions to be made, and we can only make them if everybody who has a voice shows up,” Jacobs said.
Watch the full board meeting:
