- April 28, 2024
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Riverview Learning Center will be transferring to the former Osceola Elementary campus in Ormond Beach next school year.
But with concerns circulating in the neighborhood surrounding the school, Volusia County Schools held a community information meeting on Monday, March 18, inside the cafeteria at Osceola. About 80 people — neighbors, Riverview’s faculty and community leaders — attended the meeting, which at times turned contentious as people shouted questions regarding neighborhood safety and lack of transparency regarding the transfer of the alternative education program.
On Feb. 27, the Volusia County School Board unanimously approved the transfer of Riverview from its main campus at 801 N. Wild Olive Ave. to the Osceola campus at 100 Osceola Ave., a move that will allow all of its K-12 students to be housed in one building. Currently, Riverview’s elementary students utilize a modular classroom building at Silver Sands Middle School, 10 miles away from the main Riverview campus. After the Observer reported that the program would be transferred to Osceola, residents of the neighborhood surrounding the campus pushed back against the School Board saying they were never notified that the transfer was being considered, nor did they receive word about a Dec. 5, 2023, community meeting that discussed it.
"Was it anyone's intent to keep it from you? No," School Board member Carl Persis said. "Was it anything shady, underhanded? No. I guarantee you that. It's just that we haven't done anything like this."
Persis said a mistake was made from the beginning. Though all parents of current Riverview students were notified that the program would be moved, the community wasn't. Persis said that, after hearing concerns, he then spoke with VCS Superintendent Carmen Balgobin and asked for a community meeting to inform the neighborhood of what Riverview's program is like.
"I keep hearing things about what this program is, and it's not any of those things," Persis said.
Riverview is a program for students that violate the district's student code of conduct. Students may attend the program for a nine-week period, a semester, or sometimes a school year, if parents see a benefit in keeping their child at the school.
With questions circulating about the type of offenses students have committed, Riverview Principal Thomas Soli said many students are commonly sent to the program due to statements made on social media and vaping.
"We have kids also that come to us who have not committed offenses — just they've fallen behind," Soli said.
Based on the student code of conduct, students may be sent to an alternative education program for what the district categorizes as Level 3 or Level 4 violations. A Level 3 violation, according to the student code of conduct, ranges from bullying ad being in possession of alcohol and drugs, to hitting or striking another person. A Level 4 violation includes a bomb threat, disorderly conduct or drug distribution. There are more serious offenses listed in the Level 4 student code of conduct, but if criminal charges are involved, students would not be sent to Riverview.
"Now, depending on what else happens ... and they have charges, they go to [the Department of Juvenile Justice,]" said Patty Corr, chief operating officer for Volusia County Schools.
Soli said Riverview served close to 200 students cumulatively last school year, with a peak of 110 students at one time enrolled. Currently, the Osceola campus is being used to house Tomoka Elementary students and faculty as their new school is constructed. As that school has over 600 students, neighbors will see a sharp decrease in traffic. Soli said the majority of Riverview students are bused in, with only a handful being dropped off by parents.
Riverview students, he added, are constantly monitored and escorted by an adult.
"We're providing a positive experience for students," Soli said. "They just had a negative experience at schools in Ormond .... [schools] across the district in the east side, but we're going to try to give them a positive experience."
Ormond Beach resident Daisy Grimes said that the statements being made by neighbors about Riverview and its students concerned her due to their negativity.
“They were cold words that bothered me,” she said. “And I said, ‘This is not my community.’ This is not where I live, where we are referring to children who need to be educated as ‘those children.’”
Nathaniel Anderson, coordinator of student services at VCS, said that when examining students for alternative placement, the district considers their behavior, their grades and the students themselves.
"We look at the best way we can serve and help our kids," Anderson said. "So when we send a kid to Riverview, it's not because they're outcasts — because all they need is a second chance."
Some residents at the meeting pushed back against the notion that they don't want the students at the school, stating it was the lack of transparency surrounding the decision, and lack of information provided concerning safety, that they were concerned about.
Resident Lindsey Wolf said she felt the School Board was "twisting it around in order to make the residents look like the bad guys."
"They're making it out that that the residents have an issue with the kids themselves," she said. "That's not the case. We don't have an issue with the kids. We have an issue with the safety level that's going to happen with the school and the infractions that have been done in order to land them in that location."
Despite the school district's assurance, Wolf said she wasn't convinced about the safety measures for the school. However, while she probably would have had the same issues had she been notified of the Dec. 5, 2023 meeting, she said she would likely not be nearly as upset.
"This was completely done in order to, for lack of a better term, ramrod this decision into our neighborhood and just tell us we have no choice," Wolf said. "They had plenty of opportunity to let us know."
She was also frustrated with the way the meeting was carried out. For the question and answer portion of the meeting, district staff collected note cards with people's questions, which Corr read aloud. At one point, as some people yelled out their questions, Corr threatened to cut the meeting short.
Wolf said she submitted four questions and none were read by Corr.
City Commissioner Travis Sargent said the meeting felt hostile toward residents, and that questions were left unanswered. He also said he was frustrated that the School Board blamed the commission for not being aware of the transfer, despite notice having been communicated between district and city planning staff.
But, Sargent said, since Osceola is school district property, it was the district's responsibility to communicate with residents.
"It's their responsibility to notify the residents — not the city of Ormond Beach," Sargent said. "And here they are telling our residents that we should have known, and we should have done this and I just have a hard time with the finger-pointing."
During the meeting, City Manager Joyce Shanahan said that the decision to transfer Riverview to Osceola was "100% a School Board decision" and referenced the effort the city made to keep Osceola Elementary open in 2020.
"We are just like you," Shanahan said. "We offered the [School Board] a million dollars to relocate some sewer lines to redo this school here and they thumbed their noses at us."
The students are not the issue, Sargent said; it’s the lack of transparency from the School Board. Had residents been notified of the transfer and of the December community meeting, prior to the School Board vote, he doesn’t think residents would be as upset.
"I think that the residents would have probably had a clearer vision of it and wouldn't have been blindsided by something," he said.
Persis told the Observer that he hopes to have another community meeting in September or October to address concerns. Riverview will also host an open house for the neighborhood.
