{"id":1477,"date":"2026-05-23T11:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1477"},"modified":"2026-05-23T11:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:34:25","slug":"orange-county-families-say-goodbye-to-closing-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1477","title":{"rendered":"Orange County families say goodbye to closing public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Katherine Rosales watched as her daughter ran through the fields at Bonneville Elementary School one last time.<\/p>\n

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Cecilia, who just finished second grade, looked happy. But she\u2019d cried when she learned her school would close this year, Rosales said, worried that friends might not be in class with her next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s scared about going to a new school, what it\u2019s going to be like. It has her nervous. She understands it\u2019s a big change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people filled Bonneville\u2019s campus Thursday evening for a \u201cOne Last Bark\u201d farewell \u2014 the school\u2019s mascot is the bulldog \u2014 to the school, one of seven Orange County Public Schools campuses that will close when the 2025-26 school year ends Wednesday. The six other closing schools held similar goodbye events this week.<\/p>\n

At Bonneville in east Orange County, students carried Sharpies and asked friends and teachers to sign their blue Bonneville Elementary Bulldogs t-shirts. They joined parents and former students in paging through albums filled with old class photos and yearbooks.<\/p>\n

The event was \u201cbittersweet,\u201d said teacher Renee Smithwick, who organized the gathering. It was part carnival, with face painting, bounce houses and a petting zoo, and partly a time for hugs and teary goodbyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an event that we wanted to make positive and joyful, and we wanted people to know that we are a community that can\u2019t be broken,\u201d said Smithwick, who has taught at the school for 15 years.<\/p>\n

Bonneville and the other six are shutting down because of declining enrollment. The school, which opened in 1961, enrolled 382 students this month on a campus meant for 938.<\/p>\n

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The school\u2019s closure hasn\u2019t sunk in yet, Smithwick said, but she\u2019s happy that the school where she\u2019ll be working come August is one that many Bonneville students will attend next year. <\/p>\n

The other schools slated to close, all also under enrolled, are Chickasaw, Eccleston, Meadow Woods, McCoy and Orlo Vista elementary schools and Union Park Middle School.<\/p>\n

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Orange County Public Schools lost thousands of students this year and expects to lose thousands more in coming years, which mean more half-empty campuses could close in the future.\u00a0 The district attributes the enrollment losses to declining birth rates, increased immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, and increased use of the state voucher program, which offers scholarships for private school or homeschooling services.<\/p>\n

Rosales said she\u2019s lived in a neighborhood near Bonneville since Cecila was two. The school\u2019s closure has her considering whether to move, fearing that whatever school she sends her daughter to next could also shut.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m scared that the next time it will hit her next school, or her middle school, or even worse when it\u2019s high school, when it\u2019s going to be more detrimental to her education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kayla Rodriguez, whose three children attended Bonneville, said the upcoming closure and Thursday\u2019s event were\u00a0\u201ca little overwhelming and sad\u201d because the school was a welcoming place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they treat our kids, it just feels like home,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Her youngest, Jacob, who finishes third grade this year, took the closing news hard and is scared of leaving his friends behind, she said.<\/p>\n

But not every Bonneville student is nervous about what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

Rycen Bowman, who will finish fourth grade at Bonneville and will spend fifth grade at Waterford Elementary, said he was excited to start at a new school. And his mother, Anna, said she\u2019s excited for him.<\/p>\n

Still, leaving Bonneville for the last time will feel like a \u201clittle jab\u201d to the heart, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always heard good things about Bonneville, and growing up in it, and building that sense of community, the relationships with the teachers and the admin. It kind of sucks to have to start over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Orange County Public Schools families say goodbye to seven schools set to close after the last day of school on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOrange County families say goodbye to closing public schools - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1477\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orange County families say goodbye to closing public schools - 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