Volusia County Schools to relocate Riverview Learning Center to Osceola Elementary campus

DELAND — The Volusia County School Board approved moving one of the district's alternative education programs to Ormond Beach next year.

Volusia has two alternative programs, one serving the county's east side and another serving the west.

The east side’s program is split between two locations, both of which are overseen by the same principal, Thomas Soli. The elementary program is located at the Herbert Street Center in Port Orange, and the secondary program is located at the Riverview Learning Center in Daytona Beach.

Per the recommendation of Superintendent Carmen Balgobin — who is married to Soli — the board voted unanimously Feb. 27 to relocate the Riverview Learning Center’s alternative education program to the Osceola Elementary campus in Ormond Beach at the start of the 2024-25 school year.

Students who attend Herbert Street Center will also move to the Osceola campus, which will house both the elementary and secondary centers under one roof.

“Herbert Street Center building is located on the Silver Sands Middle School property and will be utilized for classes by Silver Sands next year,” Danielle Johnson, Volusia’s director of community information, said in an email. “There was no need to vote on Herbert Street separately.”

The Riverview proposal was previously presented at the board’s Oct. 10 meeting. District staff also notified impacted families and met with the community at the Osceola Elementary campus on Dec. 5. It was slated for action at the Feb. 13 regular board meeting but was tabled until Feb. 27.

It is unclear exactly how many students will be impacted by this transfer. Patti Corr, the district’s chief operating officer, said the number of students in the program, especially at the secondary level, fluctuates frequently and that Soli has reported having up to 200 students enrolled at one time.

During her presentation, Corr also noted that this transfer will help the district adequately utilize the buildings it already owns. She explained that even though part of Osceola’s campus will be demolished, there are two buildings that the district is not allowed to tear down. Per Florida's State Requirements for Educational Facilities, those buildings must be used as close to their full capacity as possible.

“It just so happens that (transferring to the Osceola campus) would fit all that Mr. Soli needs for the alternative ed. program on the east side — to combine the elementary and secondary to one site,” Corr said.

She also noted that this transfer will provide the program with more space.

“He has outgrown that site. He also was talking about the high school students in some of the smaller classroom sizes,” she said. “It really is a crowded situation there.”

And Corr also said that the new location will increase safety, as Soli will no longer have to oversee two sites that are located at least 30 minutes apart from each other.

“God forbid if there was an emergency, he can’t quickly get there,” she said. “It’s really not conducive for operational services to have a principal over two sites that are so vastly far away from each other.”

Having the elementary and secondary programs on one campus will alleviate these concerns.

After Ormond Beach residents brought forth concerns regarding the move, the school board agreed to host a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the former site of Osceola Elementary School.

Is the district acting legally?

Tracey Remark, who spoke on behalf of her neighborhood as the co-chair of the Seabreeze-University Group, raised concerns about the district potentially failing to abide by the interlocal agreement between the school board and the city of Daytona Beach.

The agreement states that the school board must notify affected local governments in writing before taking action to close a school and also give the impacted local government 30 days to comment on the proposed action. Additionally, the school board must agree to discuss alternative uses regarding the property with the city.

However, despite having no communication with the city of Daytona Beach, the district disputed those allegations. Since the campus is relocating and not closing, the district said it did not need to communicate with the city.

“We are not closing Riverview; we are rezoning the students to another location. The buildings would most likely be repurposed for district use,” said Tracy Carpenter, Volusia County Schools’ public records custodian, in a Feb. 14 email. “Before the building could be sold or demolished, we would have to speak to the city 30 days in advance and that would require board action. We are not requesting board action.”

Benjamin Gross, the attorney for the city of Daytona Beach, declined to comment for this story.

What will happen to the current Riverview campus?

Neighbors to the Riverview Learning Center are concerned that the building will be left empty or will be demolished.

“I have friends that went to the elementary school there 50, 60 years ago, so it’s part of the neighborhood,” said Ferd Neves, who has lived near the building for more than 40 years.

Jan Ramsdell, the building’s immediate neighbor, agreed.

“If the rezoning of the kids to Osceola is necessary because of size, I’m OK with that. What I’m not OK with is shutting down that beautiful school that has been there since 1920. That has its sort of like an iconic place in our little neighborhood. So I would ... much rather see it repurposed for educational offices for education of the teachers, staff, things like that. I mean, there’s other ways to repurpose it,” she said, adding that she has a good relationship with the school, sharing cookies and Christmas cards.

At the Feb. 27 board meeting, Corr confirmed that the Riverview Learning Center will not be abandoned.

“We were just having a conversation before the board meeting that we are in desperate need of space for office space for personnel in all parts of our county and looking at repurposing the physical building of Riverview,” she said.

Is the district doing too much at once?

Board member Ruben Colón said even though the Osceola property will be an upgrade to the current situation, the site is not perfect, and in order to create an adequate learning environment, the district must make some improvements.

“The principal at Riverview, he has and everyone before him has done a great job at using a building that is really really historic. Not going to call it old, but historic. And with that comes several challenges,” Colón said. “But one of the things I wanted to make sure is that we are budgetarily committing to some improvements at that school … so from lighting upgrades to maybe some flooring upgrades to furniture upgrades … we need to budgetarily commit to some enhancements to make that building appropriate for students.”

Board member Carl Persis echoed this concern, noting that there will also be an influx in activity at the Osceola site this summer since the campus is currently being used by Tomoka Elementary while that school is being rebuilt.

“School’s going to close in June, we want to move the teachers out to get them to Tomoka. They (Riverview) want to move in in July, and there’s just going to be a lot of transition, a lot of stuff going on ... ” he said. “I just want to make sure that you can do it.”

Ronn Young, Volusia’s director of planning and construction, alluded that this summer’s transition would be less of an undertaking than last year’s.

“The summer last, we moved Beachside out and Tomoka in. We’re talking about moving Riverview in; knock Tomoka out,” he said. “There is a considerable difference.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Riverview Learning Center in Daytona Beach relocating to Ormond Beach