POINCIANA — Next year, elementary students in the Poinciana area will be divided for the first time. On Tuesday night, the Osceola County School Board voted to split kindergarten-through-fifth-graders between Deerwood and Poinciana elementary schools.
Currently, Deerwood serves students in kindergarten through second grade. Poinciana is a third- and fourth-grade school.
Fifth-graders currently attending Discovery Intermediate School will attend the elementary school in their neighborhood attendance zone. At a public hearing before the vote, parents made passionate appeals to the School Board on both sides of the sticky grade-configuration issue.
Those favoring the split expressed concerns about transportation and said it was logistical nightmare to send young siblings to multiple schools.
Board members took their side in the 5-0 vote. A district-wide committee charged with studying the grade configurations in the Poinciana area had split 50-50 in making recommendations to the board.
When classes begin in August, the Poinciana area will have two kindergarten-through-fifth-grade schools. Discovery Intermediate will become a traditional middle school with students in sixth through eighth grade.
“I think it’s a good move,” said Principal Wayne Kennedy of Poinciana Elementary, noting that he did not think students would not suffer socially when the classes split.
“Children make the adjustment in a couple of days. It’s the parents that have a harder time making the adjustment.”
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