Inside Cypress Park Elementary School in Orlando, heated tempers flared toward school officials.

  • Cypress Park Elementary, Durrance Elementary merging
  • Tense debate among parents at meeting Wednesday
  • Construction begins in June

“You are talking about having wire fence. It’s like a prison, I don’t want my daughter going to a school that looks like a prison,” said Edgar Camacho, future Cypress Park parent.

Parents even snapping back and forth at each other.

“My kids are safe in this school,” shouted Ilka Richardson, Cypress Park Elementary parent. “There is no if, no and, no buts. You have the same concerns I have!”

The merger of Cypress Park Elementary and Durrance Elementary is certainly creating some growing pains. 

“Yes, it has, it has been a little hectic between the two schools,” said Richardson, after the meeting.

Thursday night, the district discussed the final design at Cypress Park. But parents still voiced many concerns.  

“It’s going to build up a lot of traffic, and my other concern about the school area is sexual predators,” said Camacho.  

“The location is a big concern. Durrance is very easily accessible, it is surrounded by two residential neighborhoods, a nature preserve and park, and then a business. Where this one is surrounded by residential, but just outside is industrial,” said Beth Stutz, a Durrance Elementary parent.

“I get the concern when it comes to the traffic,” said Richardson.  

Via a PowerPoint, the district officials showed parents, staff and community members the final design plan.  

“We have taken into consideration some of the community's concerns and we will show them how we have changed the site plan,” said Lauren Roth, Orange County Public Schools.

Answering the many questions throughout the evening were people from OCPS, Orange County and contractors.

But not all parents were happy with the answers they were getting. 

“I don’t feel like we are being listened to. I feel like we are being brushed aside, and passed," said Stutz. "Like, ‘Oh that is the county’s issue, that is someone else’s issue.' So it is pass the buck and not listening to us or to our concerns. And we are the ones in the trenches dealing with it on a day to day basis.”  

Two areas of main concern are Durrance’s magnet school status and the students with disabilities it teaches.

“I am a little concerned about how all the ESE students are all being shuffled off to one side,” said Stutz. “My son actually has one, an ESE student who is just physically disabled, not mentally, in his class. And I love that he has that type of exposure. My father is actually in a wheelchair and has been since he was five.”

Among the crowd, one feeling rang true throughout. 

“My concern is I just want a better environment for my child,” said Camacho.

The construction on Cypress Park will begin in June 2017.  

The next community and parent meeting will take place once 40 percent of the construction is complete. It still is unknown what will be done with the Durrance school property.