Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) is the publicschool district for Orange County, Florida. It is based in the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center in downtownOrlando.[2] OCPS is the eighth-largest school district in the United States and the fourth-largest in Florida.[3] The district serves about 209,000 students at 210 schools and is one of the largest employers in Central Florida with more than 25,000 team members.[3]
The superintendent of Orange County Public Schools is Maria Vazquez. The position of superintendent is appointed by the school board. The district is overseen by the Orange County School Board, a body of seven elected officers, each board member sitting for a particular geographic district. School board districts are not analogous in any way with city or county commission districts. As of 2022, the current school board members, in order of district number, are Angie Gallo, Maria Salamanca, Alicia Farrant, Pam Gould, Vicki-Elaine Felder, Karen Castor Dentel, and Melissa Byrd.[4]
Board members are elected every four years with 8-year term limits[5] as of July 1, 2023, with Districts 1 through 3 elected during midterm election cycles (next in 2026) and Districts 4 through 7 elected during presidential cycles (next in 2024). All school board elections in Florida are currently non-partisan.[4]
A county-wide public vote in 2009 created the elected position of school board chair. Bill Sublette was subsequently elected to this position in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. Teresa Jacobs was elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.[6]
Schools
OCPS has used an attendance model of kindergarten through grade 5 for elementary schools, grades 6–8 for middle schools, and grades 9–12 for high schools since July 1987.[7] Before then, grade 6 was part of elementary school and grade 9 was part of middle school ("junior high" in OCPS prior to July 1987). As now required by Florida law, virtually all elementary schools have pre-kindergarten programs.
OCPS has 210 regular-attendance schools as of the 2023-24 school year: 132 elementary, 10 K–8, 40 middle, 22 high, and six exceptional student education centers. The district also has an adult education system with six dedicated campuses and night classes at most high schools, four dedicated special education schools as well as a hospital/homebound program, and dozens of alternative education centers, including charter schools.[8] Six of the high schools in OCPS have separate ninth-grade centers, three of them off-site of the main campus, built after the shift from K–6/7–9/10–12 to K–5/6–8/9–12.
Some elementary middle and high schools include magnet programs that allow students to specialize in particular subject areas. Students must apply to magnet schools in order to take advantage of this specialization. Some magnet programs offered by OCPS are agriscience, aviation and aerospace, Cambridge AICE, criminal justice, culinary arts, digital media & gaming, education, entertainment production, entrepreneurship, finance, fine arts, first responders, foreign languages / dual languages, gifted academy, International Baccalaureate, international studies, healthcare, hospitality, laser photonics, law, leadership, medicine, nursing, performing arts, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), veterinary animal science, and visual arts.
As of July 2023, the schools of OCPS are divided into seven groups called school cadres: Elementary, Middle/K-8, High, School Transformation, Exceptional Student Education, Career and Technical Education, and School Choice.[9] In order to provide more direct support to schools from the district, schools are now grouped primarily by grade level instead of by geographic learning communities which were in place for over 20 years.[9]
The district is in an aggressive expansion and school improvement project being fueled by a 0.5% sales tax option passed by the voters of Orange County in 2002.[10] Skyrocketing land and materials costs, however, have outpaced faster-than-expected sales tax revenue increases and slowed progress. Many projects had been pushed back, and some had been cancelled altogether. An extension of the half-penny sales tax was passed in 2014 for another ten years. Since 2003, OCPS has opened 64 new schools and renovated or replaced 132 schools.[3]
Most paperwork distributed to students and parents by OCPS is available in both English and Spanish. Many such documents are also available in Portuguese, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Arabic, and Filipino due to the significant populations in Orange County that speak each language.
In 1952, Orlando High was split into what became Edgewater High School and William R. Boone High School. Originally to be named "Orlando North" and "Orlando South", respectively, Orlando South took its modern name after its principal, William R. Boone, died before it opened. Orlando North took the name of the road it was built on, Edgewater Drive. The former Orlando High campus became Howard Middle School. Jones High moved to its present location in 1952, which was reconstructed in 2004.
In 1975, Ocoee High School and Lakeview High School were closed (their old campuses then housed Junior High schools of the same names) and their students went to the new West Orange High School. 30 years later, a new Ocoee High School was built and opened in 2005.
Robert F. Hungerford High School, founded in 1897 as the Robert F. Hungerford Normal and Industrial School in the historically black community of Eatonville, was renamed Wymore Tech and Wymore Career Education Center in the 1960's until it became the Hungerford Preparatory School in the late 1990's and operated as a district-wide magnet school without a specific geographic attendance zone. OCPS closed Hungerford Prep in 2009.
Twelve of the district's high schools were opened after 1990, not including reconstructed campuses for existing schools.
↑ Durrance ES [11] was permanently closed after the 2017-2018 school year and merged into Cypress Park ES as a combined campus known as Sally Ride ES, opening in August 2018.[12][13] The former Durrance ES campus has now been repurposed as the Orange County Public School District Food & Nutrition Services building as of the 2021-22 school year.[14]
Orange County is a county located in Central Florida, and as of the 2020 census, its population was 1,429,908 making it Florida's fifth-most populous county. Its county seat is Orlando, the core of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2.67 million in 2020.
Kendall is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. At the 2020 census, the area had a population of 80,241.
Pine Hills is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated subdivision in Orange County, Florida, United States, west of Orlando. Per the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,111. It is a part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Windermere is a town in Orange County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,030. It is part of the Orlando Metropolitan Statistical Area.
West Orange High School is a high school located in Winter Garden in southwest Orange County, Florida, United States. West Orange serves Winter Garden, Oakland, Tildenville, and parts of Lake Butler and Ocoee.
Poinciana is a settlement and census-designated place (CDP) in Osceola and Polk counties in the U.S. state of Florida. It is part of the Greater Orlando area. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 69,309.
The Collier County Public Schools is a school district in Collier County, Florida. The district has schools in four cities throughout the county: Everglades City, Immokalee, Marco Island, and Naples. The district employees approximately 3,200 teachers, 49% of whom have advanced degrees. The district includes 58 schools: 29 elementary schools, 10 middle schools, 8 high schools, along with 7 charter schools, two technical schools educating adult or dually-enrolled high school students, and 5 alternative schools. The district has an 'A' overall grade.
The School District of Lee County manages public education in Lee County, Florida. As of the 2019–20 school year, there were 95,647 students attending 119 schools in the district, which had an operating budget of $1.327 billion.
The School District of Osceola County, Florida is a school district serving all of Osceola County, Florida. The district has 71 schools.
Ocoee High School is a public secondary school located in Ocoee, Florida, 12.5 miles west of Orlando. Built in 2005, Ocoee High School operates as apart of Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) and serves students from the cities of Ocoee, Apopka, Winter Garden, and Western Pine Hills. Ocoee High School is currently serving 2,479 students.
Wekiva High School is a high school located in Apopka, Florida, United States. The school mascot is the mustang. The school colors are maroon, navy and gold. It was established in 2007 as a relief school for Apopka High School and Ocoee High School. Its principal since July 2023 is Kenisha Williams.
Volusia County Schools is the public school district for Volusia County, Florida, United States. The district serves the 16 cities of Daytona Beach, DeBary, DeLand, DeLeon Springs, Deltona, Edgewater, Enterprise, Holly Hill, Lake Helen, New Smyrna Beach, Oak Hill, Orange City, Ormond Beach, Osteen, Pierson, and Port Orange. It is the 57th largest school district in the United States and serves approximately 63,000 students. The district is composed of 45 elementary schools, 12 middle schools, and 9 high schools. In addition there are 9 alternative schools, 7 charter schools, 2 combination schools, and 1 district virtual instruction program. The district is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools/AdvancED.
Lake County Schools is a public school district located in Lake County, Florida, U.S.. The district operates 59 schools, including 19 elementary schools, 9 middle schools, and 8 high schools. The district educates over 41,100 students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Robert Hungerford Preparatory High School was a segregated high school for African Americans in Eatonville, Florida.
Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS) is a public school district that covers Seminole County, Florida. As of September 2006, the total district wide enrollment was 66,351 students.
The West End is a wholly unincorporated area in suburban Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is the collection of communities within and adjacent to County Commission District 11. At the time of the 2010 census, there were 213,839 residents.
Windermere High School is a high school in Lake Butler, an unincorporated area located in the southwest portion of Orange County, Florida, USA, within the Orlando metropolitan area.
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