Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, School Superintendent Barbara Jenkins and School Board Chair Bill Sublette held a joint news conference Wednesday at the County Building to talk about the new school siting ordinance passed by the Orange County Commission this week.
- Orange County leaders met to discuss new school siting ordinance
- Ordinance states how much land is required to build a new school
- 6 new schools are planned for next year
Jacobs talked about how a change to the ordinance will help alleviate future problems between the county and school district.
She also discussed how the debate over the site and size of an Avalon Park relief school helped them in drafting the ordinance.
"I have recognized that the school district needs to know when they are buying land that they are going to be able to build it so this will help clarify some of those ambiguities that we saw before," Jacobs said.
"Avalon Park is constantly growing and a lot of people constantly look for good schools, so it will be nice to have another school," said parent Cristiane Da Silva.
Da Silva said the addition of another school was a big topic of conversation in her community.
"I've talked to parents that have had to drive their kids to charter schools and even private schools because they did not feel comfortable with the amount of kids there," said Da Silva.
The developer couldn't agree with officials on the lot size and you had parents on both sides of the issue.
However, the new ordinance states how many acres of land is required to build a new school.
The amount of land has now decreased to about 15 acres for elementary, middle and high school.
In Avalon Park, the developer wanted the middle school to be smaller than what was previously required.
The smaller lot size can also help the district save money.
The passing of the ordinance comes just in time for orange county public schools.
Six new schools are planned for next year.
About 40 new schools have been proposed in the future.