October 2007
Community Paper
copyright ©2007 by Community Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.


By Kathleen Skambis, Chair of the Edgewater High School Renovation Task Force

IMPORTANT COMMUNITY MEETING – OCTOBER 1st
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO EDGEWATER HIGH SCHOOL?
This month, the uncertainty surrounding the future of Edgewater High School increased substantially. During the last week of August, sources closely connected to OCPS and the Edgewater High School (EHS) rebuilding project alerted the EHS Community Reconstruction Task Force and the media that planning within OCPS had taken a turn. OCPS was reportedly favoring an option that would entail no new land for EHS. This plan would rebuild the school on the existing campus and would require students to be bused to a "swing" school--Evans High School--during the rebuilding process. Use of Evans High School, and therefore construction of Edgewater High School, would wait until after Evans is rebuilt at its current ninth grade site. Construction has not yet begun on the new Evans and will likely not conclude until 2009, at the earliest. Reportedly, two other plans for Edgewater (add the shopping center land and add the shopping center and mobile home park land) were also being considered, but only the no-land-swing-school plan was being seriously developed.

The EHS Task Force is a group of concerned community leaders who have been attempting to work with OCPS for more than three years to ensure that the redevelopment of EHS is done in a thoughtful and equitable manner so that the school can continue its success for the next 50 years. Upon receiving news of this new OCPS plan, the Task Force members immediately began calling the personnel that OCPS had designated as their points of contact. None of them would deny the information. Similarly, neither School Board member Anne Geiger nor Superintendent Ronald Blocker would deny the information. Mrs. Geiger circulated an email in which she stated that a decision for EHS was imminent and that OCPS had already gathered input. The process she described included no community meeting between now and the time the School Board votes on the matter to discuss the options and obtain community input on this new option.

On September 10th, Mrs. Geiger came, as previously scheduled, to a College Park Neighborhood Association meeting. More than 250 EHS community members from various neighborhoods came to hear her comments, to ask questions, and to provide input. Mrs. Geiger provided essentially no additional information. She stated that she could provide no details about the planning for Edgewater High School or what a campus with no new land would look like and that she had not made a decision with respect to what plan she would support. She also stated, in response to a question, that the Task Force is responsible for the fact that the land the School Board has twice voted to acquire has not yet been obtained. There is no factual basis for that statement; and in fact, the Task Force unequivocally urged the Board and OCPS officials on multiple occasions to go forward with any and all parcels under consideration. At least two of those communications are in writing and part of the public records of OCPS. In an interview with WESH-TV after the September 10th meeting, Mrs. Geiger stated that acquiring no additional land and using Evans as a swing school was still an option.

Many, many questions remain unanswered. Among them are: What would a rebuilt school on the existing land look like? Would there be improved and equitable athletic facilities, such as tennis courts and practice fields? Would there be adequate parking? Would it accommodate enough students or would any available space (parking and athletic fields) soon be covered with portables? What are the costs of using a swing school, including busing, moving costs, and additional maintenance and repair required at Evans? What are the intangible costs of moving a school for two years, especially to a location where no one in the EHS community wants to go?

On the other hand, we do know some facts. Edgewater High School is the oldest high school in Orange County that has not been comprehensively renovated. Its campus, at 29 usable acres, is by far the smallest campus of any high school in Orange County, is half the size of most OCPS high schools, and is more than 25% smaller than the minimum size recommended by the State. EHS is one of the most diverse and academically successful of any OCPS high school. Its eleventh grade Science FCAT scores were the third highest among Orange County high schools. Its school grade last year was a C, but only two points below a B, and it is ranked number 316 on the Newsweek list of outstanding high schools in the country--in the top 2% of all high schools. On September 11, 2007, the School Board approved a capital budget for the EHS comprehensive renovation of approximately $106 million. That amount does not include money for land acquisition, which comes from a different portion of the OCPS budget. No breakdown for how that money would be spent has been made available to the public.

We also know the history of this project: After at least one year of study, on December 13, 2005, the School Board voted to acquire the shopping center. After another 11 months of study, the School Board voted on October 10, 2006, to acquire the mobile home park land, in part because it determined that doing so would reduce the cost of construction, including phasing and staging costs, by enough to almost pay for the land. The Demetree organization purchased the mobile home park land and displaced the residents, in part because the School Board had indicated its interest in acquiring the land. On March 22, 2007, after two Board votes and after OCPS obtained full information about the cost of acquiring the land, OCPS presented to the community its plan for the future EHS. That plan, as expected, included acquiring all of the land, building the school on the new land, and then selling approximately four acres for commercial use. In April 2007, OCPS suddenly floated the possibility of relocating the campus to a location outside the Edgewater attendance zone, near Princeton and John Young Parkway. The Board stated its opposition to that plan in the face of massive community protest. The Board directed OCPS to consider three options and obtain full information about the costs of each plan: use only the existing site or use the existing site plus the shopping center land or use the existing site plus the shopping center and the mobile home park land. As of June 14, 2007, OCPS communicated with the Task Force and the Orlando Sentinel that it was favoring the second option, but told the Task Force that it did not yet have complete cost information.

The Edgewater High School community and all Orange County taxpayers deserve answers. The decision about Edgewater High School will have far-reaching consequences for this community and all of Orange County. The bases for the options being considered by OCPS should be publicly scrutinized. The students and EHS community are not responsible for OCPS’s failure to acquire adequate land for the Edgewater campus. They should not now be shut out of the process, continue to be shoe-horned onto a tiny site, and be forced to accept a school that does not have the amenities that other high schools in Orange County enjoy.

The EHS Task Force is working closely with planning and design professionals familiar with school construction in Orange County and with groups in all of the neighborhoods that presently send students to Edgewater, including College Park, Eatonville, Rosemont, Lake Eola Heights, and Maitland. The Task Force will host a meeting for everyone in the Edgewater High School community on Monday, October 1, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. in the College Park Baptist Church Fellowship Hall at 1914 Edgewater Drive. OCPS representatives have been urged to attend to provide information. The Task Force expects OCPS to accept the invitation to inform and listen to the community. If OCPS declines, the Task Force will present information it has obtained from public records, which is substantial despite OCPS’s resistance, will provide professional analysis of the possibilities for EHS, and will provide a forum for public discussion of the alternatives.