The Brevard County School Board voted Tuesday night to close an elementary school in the district, citing under enrollment and a districtwide budget deficit.
Students at Cape View Elementary in Cape Canaveral will now attend Roosevelt Elementary.
With the school board’s vote, Cape View will close after this school year. Cape View students will be bused to Roosevelt Elementary, as it is approximately 7 miles away from Cape View.
Board members explain their vote
School Board member Katye Campbell said the decision to close the school was a difficult one but it was made with the best interests of students throughout the entire district in mind. She says funding for Cape View is funding that could be used to hire teachers and staff throughout the district.
"For a million dollars, BPS can hire 12 people. For 2 ½ million dollars, we can hire 30 to support children in many schools," Campbell said.
Board Chair Matt Susin said the vote to close Cape View was the hardest vote he’s ever cast. But he’s excited about the possibilities of combining students at Cape View and Roosevelt Elementary.
Susin says more students at Roosevelt Elementary mean more opportunities for new clubs, sports and other extracurriculars.
He said the fact that Roosevelt Elementary is a feeder school into a nearby middle and high school, means kids will have a better and more cohesive experience transitioning to the different grade levels.
“If you look at any educational surveys and studies and research, when you have a K-12 exponentially grows the achievement levels and the buy-in to the schools," Susin said.
Cape View families at the meeting did not agree with the vote for Campbell or Susin.
Community members push back
Cape Canaveral resident Bruce Robinson said most of the residents of Cape Canaveral felt blindsided.
“From what I understand, this appeared nowhere on the five-year plan of the School Board, and it appeared as a line item in the 2025 agenda,” Robinson said. "And it seems to us, parents and grandparents, that this has been sprung on us within the last four months. Suddenly, it's been moved to the front burner, and suddenly now it's a great priority.”
Robinson, like the Cape Canaveral City Council, asked the board to wait on their decision instead, to give it 12 months and reconsider.
“My grandmother had a saying, haste makes waste,” he said. “Let's not make a hasty decision tonight. Cape View is a valuable asset. Let's not waste it. Give us, as our mayor said, as our city council said, give us 12 months. Give us 12 months to see what opportunities we can do to make Cape View another viable school.”
Watch the BPS school board meeting here:
But those requests were denied with the board’s vote on Tuesday. Sarah Hodge also spoke out against the closure of Cape View, reading from the petition to keep the school open on Change.org. That petition has over 2,400 signatures.
“Teachers at our beloved school have dedicated their entire careers here. The moment you walk through the doors, it feels like home,” Hodge said “This is not just a building, it's the heart and soul of our town, touched by the commitment and care of 30 dedicated educators and bustling with the energy of 300 bright young minds. Closing the school is not about evaluating our children's educational needs or considering their future. It's about profit.”
Mom Melissa Bass also spoke passionately against the closure, calling the board inept.
“I am disgusted by what I've seen from people on this board over the last several months. Most recently, my city's good faith attempt to help save our school was met with question dodging, shallow platitudes, misrepresentation of facts, classism and complete lack of action,” Bass said. “You've all shown yourselves. You pedal a culture where exhausted, overworked teachers are the goal for efficiency, students' worth is reduced to units of monetary drain on the county coffers.”
Public schools experience upheaval throughout Central Florida
Brevard is not the only Central Florida school district considering closing schools. Orange County Public Schools could close seven schools in the district next school year.
The Orange County School Board voted to begin the rezoning process in the communities around the seven schools in late December. Community listening sessions are slated to begin this month about the rezoning process and potential school closures.
OCPS says there are about 5,000 fewer students this school year, compared with last, enrolled in the district and a $41 million dollar budget deficit district wide.
Central Florida public school districts are also processing Schools of Hope requests they received this fall, for charter schools that want to co-locate in public schools.
More than 20 districts in Florida have received 690 letters from School of Hope operators, according to the Florida Policy Institute.
In Central Florida, Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia county schools are all considering these requests.
Orange County parents have also cast their ballots this week to decide whether to turn a public school, Orange Center Elementary in Orlando, into a charter school, in a model based on the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Reporting by Central Florida Public Media found student enrollment has decreased in every Central Florida public school district this school year, except in Sumter County, with most blaming the state’s universal voucher program for the change.
