May 26, 2021 | 4:49 PM
Daytona Beach, FL - Starting in the 2022 school year, the Osceola Indians and the Ortona Dolphins will become the Beachside Sea Turtles. That comes after the Volusia County School Board voted on the new name and mascot for what will replace both Osceola Elementary School and Ortona Elementary School in the 2022 school year; Beachside Elementary School. The new school will be built on the North Grandview Avenue site Ortona currently sits on, but Beachside will instead feature two stories and serve around 745 kids. Residents and the City of Ormond Beach originally approached the Volusia County School Board in February with a $1.95 million economic incentive to keep Osceola Elementary, saying the funds could go towards a complete overhaul of the existing school. But that same month, the school board voted no on the incentive and decided to move forward with their plans, which were made in August 2020.
Feb 10, 2021 11:24 AM Ormond Beach, FL - The choice of Ortona Elementary School over Osceola Elementary School made by the Volusia County School Board (VCSB) last August will stand. The decision to not reconsider the choice was made during yesterday s (February 9) meeting despite an offer of $1,950,000 as an economic incentive from the city of Ormond Beach. Osceola Elementary School is in the district belonging to District 4 Commissioner Carl Persis. When the decision was made last year, Persis is the only Board member who voted against the choice of Ortona Elementary. He said he believes the other Board members didn t want to revisit the issue and were not swayed by the offer of money from Ormond Beach. Because I was the only one that voted against it originally, it would take a member who was on the prevailing side to want to bring the issue back up. Persis said that Osceola Elementary School will be open for a couple of more years as Ortona Elementary students go
Feb 9, 2021 10:18 AM Ormond Beach, FL - The Ormond Beach City Commission voted unanimously to approve a $1,950,000 economic incentive to the Volusia County School Board (VCSB) that would pay for necessary upgrades to keep Osceola Elementary School open. Zone 1 Commissioner Dwight Selby said that the goal is to get the VCSB to reconsider choosing Ortona Elementary School in Daytona Beach. He said city staff will be at this afternoon s school board meeting in case VCSB has questions. Selby said VCSB made the decision to keep Ortona open and shut down Osceola last summer. He says the timing was not good. I think residents, parents were focused on other things. They were focused on their family, on health. They weren t paying as much attention as they normally would when you talk about closing a school. The hope is that the issue will be opened back up and that VCSB will seek more public input on the matter. Selby said schools are very important to neighborhoods. Osceol
Feb 7, 2021 7:47 AM Ormond Beach, FL - The possibility of Osceola Elementary being shut down and students merged with those at Ortona Elementary School has led to the creation of a Save Osceola Elementary School petition. The city of Ormond Beach is working to keep the school open. At the January 26 school board meeting, Joyce Shanahan, the city manager, addressed the Board to share the city commission’s strong desire to have the new school built on the Osceola site. This comes a year after the Volusia County School Board (VCSB) decided to make Ortona Elementary the location for the new Beachside K-5 School. The decsion was made and then came COVID-19. According to the petitioners, District 4 School Board Member Carl Persis said that During this year long discussion, the Board did not receive a large response from Osceola families. Perhaps, because of the pandemic, people were dealing with so many health and financial issues, the matter of closing Osceola was no
Volusia County School Board members are considering changing a decision they already made about the controversial consolidation of Osceola and Ortona elementary schools.
At a workshop earlier this month, they discussed reversing their plan to build a school in Daytona Beach in favor of building it in Ormond Beach. But by this week, Daytona Beach officials who heard of the talks showed up to encourage School Board members not to go down that path.
And with the construction date approaching, school district officials are running out of time to make changes.
Changing minds
The board has been spent about a year debating how best to consolidate the two small schools in Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach: Build a new elementary school or pivot to a K-8 school? Use the Osceola site or the Ortona site?