INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Parents will have a say in whether the school district considers a classic private school curriculum for a new magnet school.
This will be part of a strategy to increase the number of registrants as the number of registrants continues to decline.
Officials said a survey about the possibility of a K-12 classical magnet school will be sent to parents this summer.
Superintendent David Moore recently told the school board that enrollment across the district has declined significantly. Moore said the district's student population is about 800 fewer students than the 2018-2019 school year, which means about $1.6 million less in state spending.
The district needs to find ways to attract more students, he said. Moore said some schools are currently only half full, and schools that struggle with enrollment are losing money every year because the state only pays for students who enroll. That's what it means.
“We cannot afford to have schools half empty,” Moore told the board. “We need to be innovative to fill them.”
Moore did not identify those schools.
What is the classical model?
Last year, the school board directed Moore to study the creation of a public classical education school. The concept, Moore said, is one of the fastest growing movements in the state.
The classical school model uses traditional teaching methods of art, literature and language rooted in the classical era of Greece and Rome, the district's director of compliance and equity said in a February presentation to the school board. Kayla Schafte explained. Students are taught Latin and learn logic and rhetoric along with critical thinking skills, she said.
The classical education model has traditionally been limited to private and charter schools, but Miami-Dade County Schools plans to open the state's first public classical school in the fall.
If Indian River County approves the idea, planning would begin this year, including gauging parent interest and looking at materials and costs, county officials said. The school, which is struggling with enrollment numbers, will open in phases from 2025 to 2026, starting with kindergarten/first grade, according to staff.
By 2027-2028, it will become a kindergarten through fifth-grade magnet school with a classical education theme, and by 2028-2029, it will grow to kindergarten through eighth grade. According to the proposed action plan, the school would expand each year to become a K-12 school by 2030-31.
Moore said initial costs may be higher due to teacher training, the use of a classical education model, and costs associated with changing school signage and classrooms, but the district will see some savings. He said transportation costs would go down because buses wouldn't bring students from every area of the county, and better schools would bring in additional state funding.
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Indian River County Magnet School
The district already has three magnet schools: Liberty Elementary, Osceola Elementary and Rosewood Elementary. Students apply to participate and are selected through an automated lottery system. Moore said the magnet school concept is popular in the district, which receives hundreds of applications each year for the limited number of seats.
“For every application received, one student is rejected,” Moore said.
School board members seemed interested in the concept.
“This is something that is not typically offered in public school districts in a cutting-edge way,” said board member Gene Poska.
Board President Terry Barenborg, who taught at a similar school, said the kindergarten through eighth grade school is attractive to parents. The transition from elementary school to middle school is easier from kindergarten to middle school, she said. Older students pay attention to younger students and teachers know them well, she said.
Kevin McDonald, a new member of the board, already has experience with the classical education model. MacDonald is the former president, provost, and treasurer of the Geneva School in Manhattan, a private classical education school. Mr MacDonald said the school was successful because of its emphasis on classical education.
Colleen Wixson is an education reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast newspapers. Contact Colleen.Wixon@TCPalm.com.
