Orange schools to delay new campus construction amid declining enrollment
Orlando Sentinel |By Steven Walker |
Orange County Public Schools will pause new school construction for four years in the face of declining enrollment, a “very rare” move for a school district that has been in a two-decade-long building boom.
The district that opened 28 new campuses in the last 10 years alone will open one new school in August, two in 2026 but then plans no other new schools until 2031.
“We don’t want to open up empty schools,” said Rory Salimbene, OCPS’s chief facilities officer.
Central Florida’s largest school district now expects enrollment for the next school year to drop by about 3,100, then plateau by 2027 and start picking up again in 2031.
OCPS’ 10-year construction plan assumed enrollment would increase this year, but new projections prompted officials to delay most new campuses by a year or two.
The district blamed declining enrollment in large part on the expansion of Florida’s school voucher program, which provides money for private school scholarships and homeschooling services and has subsequently lured many students away from traditional public schools.
But by 2031, the district again expects it will need more campuses, mostly in high-growth suburbs, including Apopka, Horizon West and Lake Nona. So OCPS school construction work will restart then, with plans to open six elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools in the span of five years.
Since Orange voters approved a half-penny sales tax for school construction in 2003, OCPS has opened at least one new school almost every year. So the planned construction gap “is a very rare circumstance,” Salimbene said.
Construction is ongoing at the site of the new Luminary Elementary School in the Lake Nona area in Orlando, FL, on Friday, May 16, 2025.
Angie Gallo, a member of the Orange County School Board, said the construction team’s decision made sense given the new enrollment projections.
“The last thing that we want to do is to build new schools that will be half-full or, within several years, won’t be able to pay for themselves,” Gallo said as the facilities staff reviewed construction plans with the school board.
The enrollment decline expected for the 2025-26 school year means the district’s operating budget will take a hit as it relies on state funding based on a per-pupil formula. Administrators are reducing all department budgets by 2% as a result.
The district’s capital budget, which pays for construction, however, is largely shielded because it is mostly funded by local money that is not tied to enrollment.
The half-penny sales tax pays for more than 45% of OCPS’ capital funding, with local property taxes covering about 42% and impact fees paid by developers of new homes providing about 10%, according to OCPS.
Innovation High School, shown being built in Lake Nona, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. It opened in August as OCPS’ 23rd traditional high school.
OCPS’ newest school, Luminary Elementary School in the Lake Nona area, opens in August and will relieve crowding in nearby Eagle Creek and Laureate Park elementary schools. Laureate Park now has about 1,250 students on a campus meant for 790.
The two new schools opening in 2026 will be in Lake Nona and Horizon West.
Despite the pause in new school construction, OCPS’ facilities team will have plenty of work, as it has dozens of renovation projects going on. The district has 210 schools, and nearly 10 a year need work as they hit their 25th year, Salimbene said.
“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” he said.
