ORMOND BEACH, Fla. —The City of Ormond Beach and some of its residents are putting up a fight to try to keep from losing the city’s only beachside school.

The Volusia County School Board recently voted to merge Osceola Elementary School with Ortona Elementary, which is 3 miles down the road.

As the father of fifth-grader Tyler and third-grader Chase, Mike Pavelka has deep ties to Osceola Elementary and was upset to learn that the school could soon be shut down. 

“I went there, my Mom worked there, my kids go there so I was very disappointed," Pavelka said. 

According to school board members, both had millions of dollars set aside for improvement projects. They decided the smart thing to do would be to use that money for one big project. 

“So we could combine both school populations into one new school,” Volusia school board member Carl Persis said. 

Over the summer, the board voted to choose Ortona as the site of the new school, and some renderings have already been created. 

“One of the reasons is it would cost about $1 million less to build it at the Ortona site than it would be to build it at the Osceola site,” Persis said.

However, Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington said he believes Osceola is the better site for the project. 

“The fact that it is bigger, 13 acres vs 10 acres,” Partington said. “The fact, when you look at the student population, less people would be displaced or impacted by keeping the Osceola school site in place, and then transportation-wise, even the school board’s own transportation department recognized that was the best location." 

Pavelka, who used to be in charge of the traffic department at the Ormond Beach Police Department, agrees.

“It is a very bad idea, mainly because once you start funneling all those kids, which I believe is going to be roughly about 700 to 800 students to Ortona, their infrastructure is not built like Osceola's with all the roads that get in and out,” Pavelka said. 

While the school district says about $300,000-$400,000 has already been invested in the project, Partington said the city is willing to help cover it.

“There are infrastructure projects that the city can help with that will cover a lot of the costs, and I think [if] the school board partners with us to make the right decision, we’ll be just fine,” Partington said. 

The mayor is still hopeful that there is time to have their voices heard before the project goes any further since many people had been preoccupied during the first vote. 

“With the [COVID] pandemic, it never had the opportunity for a full public hearing, unfortunately, and that is what I think. More people are aware of the issue now and willing to talk about it and point out the positives Ormond Beach has to offer so I am hopeful that will change some minds on the school board,” Partington said. 

Persis said they will discuss the issue in-depth at a workshop February 9, keeping future generations in mind. 

“This decision isn’t anything we should be short-sighted about,” Persis said. 

If enough school board members change their minds at the workshop, the item could potentially be put back on an agenda for another vote.

Another question that still remains is what happens to the school they don’t pick. In the short term, Persis said that school will be used for students displaced from Tomoka Elementary while their school is renovated. In the long term, he said options are still up in the air.