Volusia County school district considering re-zoning that could affect thousands of students

DELAND, Fla. - Major changes could be coming for thousands of Volusia County students and their families as district officials consider re-zoning due to overcrowding issues.

Despite the potentially large impact re-zoning could have, only one non-school district employee showed up to Wednesday’s community impact meeting.

"I think the turnout was very low tonight, but this was a receiving school," said Ron Young, director of planning and design for Volusia County Schools. "Usually, the turnout in the descending schools is higher."

Young said if the re-zoning plan moves forward, most of the schools impacted will be elementary.

"We’re experiencing a lot of neighborhoods coming in, large neighborhoods… high density… so we’re trying to get ahead of the student enrollment that’s coming in, so we are pretty much re-zoning the entire district," Young said.

If the proposal is approved, 100+ students will be moved to Woodward Elementary from Citrus Grove. Woodward recently underwent a $21.5 million renovation to meet expanding needs, according to a Volusia County Schools spokesperson.

"We added about 11 classrooms, which increased the capacity here by about 300 seats," Young said. "Less than two miles away, we have citrus grove, that is currently at about 113%, so it’s pretty high in capacity, right? And [Woodward] is currently at about 69%."

Tracey Ryser, principal of Woodward Elementary School said she is excited for the possibility of welcoming more students for the 2024 – 2025 school year.

"We can service about 750–800 students, so right now we have about 500 students, so we are ready to take in more," Ryser said.

Wednesday’s community input meeting is just one of several planned ahead of the board’s February 27th vote. It’s important for parents to attend, said Young.

"Sometimes parents feel like the decisions have already been made, but they haven’t," Young said. "If they would come to the meetings and give their opinions, we will take those opinions forward."

The next community meeting will take place on December 5 at Riverview Learning Center in Ormond Beach.