INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Dodgertown Elementary School will remain open as is, the Indian River County School Board decided unanimously Tuesday night after nearly two hours of public input and discussion. The future for Osceola Magnet Elementary School, however, remains uncertain.
The decision not to relocate Dodgertown’s 426 students to other schools and move Osceola Magnet’s population to that campus drew a standing ovation, cheers and thunderous applause from the few hundred parents, students and staff from the two schools.
“I’m thrilled,” said Dodgertown Elementary Pre-K teacher Katie Knappman after the School Board’s decision came down. “They made the right decision.”
Board members cited concerns about the lack of input earlier on in the process from Dodgertown’s families, the lack of information about financing, and the examination of other options, including the possibility of moving the school to the repurposed Thompson Lifelong Learning Center.
Moving the magnet school to the campus would have resolved the chronic flooding and drainage problem Osceola has faced for decades, which is the impetus for finding Osceola Magnet a new home.
School Board member Karen Disney-Brombach made the motion to reject the recommendation to relocate Osceola to Dodgertown.
“It’s about the process,” she said. This would “displace some of our more fragile families.”
Dodgertown Elementary is located in Gifford, an economically challenged community.
She apologized to the Dodgertown families who attended the meeting, noting they were the last to be consulted on the potential closure.
“I don’t believe you were treated well in the process,” Disney-Brombach said.
Osceola Magnet grandparent Sandra Martin Tyler said she was very happy with the board’s decision, even though it leaves Osceola without a new home in the immediate future.
“I have a new respect,” she said of the School Board. “They are very caring and compassionate.”
Tyler said she believes there are ways to keep Osceola where it currently sits, on 20th Street in Vero Beach. Moving it to Dodgertown would not have been right, she added.
“Closing is not the answer,” Tyler said. “It’s just not the answer.”
Dodgertown Elementary had been identified by Schools Superintendent Dr. Fran Adams and district staff as a school to be closed and repurposed for the magnet due to declining enrollment and its central location within the county.
Dr. Adams told the audience and the School Board that as enrollment numbers came in this school year, staff began to question the soundness of building a new school – one that would seat 200 additional students, drawing more students out of the traditional schools and into the magnet.
“Let’s be real,” she said, noting that if the decline in student enrollment at the traditional schools continues, more elementary schools will have to be closed.
Dr. Adams reminded the board the district cannot afford schools that seat only 400-500 students. The board had previously agreed that all new schools – starting with the rebuild of Vero Beach Elementary would house 750 students, enough to break even in terms of funding and expenses.
Any school less than that runs at a deficit, meaning it does not get enough state and federal funding to afford its expenses due to the lack of economies of scale.
Dodgertown Elementary School’s zone – the area in which students are assigned to that school – contains 1,000 students. Of those, 402 attend the school. Twenty-four live outside the zone and choose to attend.
The students would have been rezoned to other schools in the county had the School Board decided to close Dodgertown.
“Dodgertown has not failed us,” School Board Chair Jeff Pegler said of the declining enrollment at the school. “We have failed Dodgertown.”
Pegler, who said he agonized over his decision, said the solution is not to close Dodgertown, but instead give the school the attention it has needed. Then, enrollment might improve.
Building a new campus for Osceola Magnet would cost the School District approximately $24 million, while moving it to Dodgertown – or another school site – would cost less than half.
“That’s big in today’s economy,” Dr. Adams said.
The district would plan to build new classroom wings at two other elementary schools at an estimated cost of $6.5 million to replace portables and expand school capacity.
At Dodgertown, the district would have spent another $4 million to install a new façade – removing the Dodgertown name and baseball elements – and expand the parent pick-up loop.
By closing Dodgertown and relocating Osceola, the School District could have expected to save approximately $1 million annually in staffing cuts, not paying utilities at the old Osceola site, and removing the portables at the two other elementary school sites, Dr. Adams said.
School Board member Claudia Jimenez said she did not believe closing Dodgertown would be in the best interest of the School District or the school’s families, adding that the board needs to address Osceola Magnet’s issues – but not at the expense of other students.
However, she noted that the district cannot continue as is, funding schools that don’t have enough students.
“We’re going to have to close a school,” she said, noting that if not now, then later.
School Board member Carol Johnson told her fellow board members that more work needs to be done on the issue.
“I don’t think we have a plan,” she said, explaining that the board has not set policy yet to address the declining enrollment at the elementary schools and more schools in the future might have to close. “We don’t have any vision.”
The School Board and district staff will have to sit down and determine how to proceed now that the Dodgertown option is off the table.
The board could decide to move forward with building a new campus at Pointe West, as has been discussed for several years. Or the board could build a new school campus at Waterway Village off 58th Avenue. A third option would be to re-examine the Thompson Lifelong Learning Center.
