The ballots have been sent out and parents are voting on whether to convert a public elementary school in Orange County into a charter school.
If approved, the school would be a new model for public-private school partnerships in Central Florida.
Parents got their ballots on Jan. 5 and they’ve had a couple of weeks to mail them in. The last day to vote is Jan. 20. Then ballots will be collected and counted on Jan. 22.
If approved, the Neighborhood Schools Initiative (NSI) would operate the new charter school with support from Orange County Public Schools and nonprofit Lift Orlando, starting in July.
“The district will remain the sponsor of the charter, and then there will be a great deal of oversight, accountability and transparency,” said Lift Orlando’s Mark Shamley. “There will be a governing board. There will be an advisory committee put together comprising of parents, educators, members of the community.”
The charter school would feature wrap-around services. Shamley says some of those services include health services and after-school programs, based on the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Watch a parent information session on the conversion:
“So we see this as an opportunity to strengthen the public school system and not just focusing on one school, and that's going to be the really unique opportunity that we have here,” Shamley said.
The Harlem Children’s Zone would serve as an advisor to the new charter school. The organization started out as a one-block pilot in New York City, and has grown into an award-winning nonprofit serving thousands of students in the city. The model uses a “conveyor belt” of services like counseling, wellness and nutrition services, with the goal of breaking intergenerational poverty and improving student outcomes.
The idea behind Harlem Children’s Zone is that you can’t teach a child, unless you meet them where they are at not only academically, but also socio-emotionally. And you can’t do it without raising up that child and their community, helping them deal head-on with some of the challenges they might face in the classroom, but also when they go home from school.
By the 2029-2030 school year, the goal, if parents approve the conversion of Orange Center Elementary, is for the school to be a K-8 academy with a science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts or STEAM focus.
Students already zoned for Orange Center will get priority enrollment.
The vote comes amid a changing landscape for public schools in Florida: enrollment is down in every district in Central Florida, with most experiencing budget shortfalls.
Public school districts in Orange and Brevard counties are considering closing schools, and others could be turned into Schools of Hope.
