ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Hundreds of students who do not attend one of the seven Orange County schools slated for consolidation next year will be rezoned to a different school to balance out class sizes and fill additional classroom space, if the district’s plan is approved.
The ripple effects are limited to three schools, one elementary and two middle schools, and mostly to students who would have had to leave their classmates anyway as they attended the high school zoned for their particular neighborhood.
Staff members also presented the plan for what will happen to each of the seven schools that are being closed in a $41 million cost-cutting plan. Attendance at each of the schools has fallen due to several factors, including demographic shifts and the increasing popularity of charter schools.
The district is also under pressure to fill all available classroom space to prevent “schools of hope” from moving in, which would further drain resources from the district.
The plan, and effects for each of the seven schools are as follows:
Bonneville Elementary
Bonneville’s students will be shifted to East Lake Elementary, approximately two and a half miles from Bonneville by bus.
East Lake will lose 200 of its original students to Columbia Elementary, located further east in the county.
The East Lake students can be grandfathered back to their original school as long as their parents provide transportation. The parents can also re-enter them through open enrollment, which would protect any younger siblings that also attend beyond the attendance of the older sibling.
Union Park Middle School
Union Park’s students will be broken into four groups, attending Legacy Middle School, Odyssey Middle School, Glendridge Middle School and Discovery Middle School respectively.
Some Odyssey students will be sent to Legacy, while a contingent of Legacy students will be shuffled to Discovery. District staff said the moves will align those students with their future high schools.
Those students can stay at their original middle schools if their parents provide transportation.
Chickasaw Elementary
Chickasaw students will be split in half, with students east of Goldenrod Road head to Deerwood Elementary, while students west of the road will attend Englewood Elementary.
Eccleston Elementary
Eccleston students will remain together and attend Washington Shores Elementary, which will also retain all its students.
Washington Shores will have an estimated 551 students after the consolidation, under its capacity of 632.
McCoy Elementary
McCoy students will be broken in half, geographically, with students east of Semoran Boulevard attending Ventura Elementary. Students west of the road will attend Shenandoah Elementary.
Meadow Woods Elementary
Meadow Woods students will be split between Southwood Elementary School and Wyndham Lakes Elementary.
While Southwood, on paper, will be over-capacity after the consolidation, district staff said many students zoned for that area attend other schools and they were confident the school would be at or under capacity.
Orlo Vista Elementary
Orlo Vista will lose its community school, with students heading to Oak Hill Elementary and Ivey Lane Elementary. A small group will move south to Eagles Nest Elementary.
Many of the schools were expected to continue losing students for the next two or three years before enrollment began to climb again, though these projections do not take into account other factors like additional charter schools opening or another surge of families moving from northern states.
The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on this plan during a future meeting.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2026 Cox Media Group
