ORMOND BEACH — Josephine Levenstein lives a few houses down from the former Osceola Elementary site. When she first learned about the Volusia County School Board’s Feb. 27 decision to relocate the Riverview Learning Center’s alternative education program to the Osceola Elementary campus at the start of the 2024-25 school year, she was concerned.
She addressed the board at its March 12 meeting, citing a lack of communication from Volusia County Schools as her biggest “red flag.”
“I honestly am appalled that everybody was blindsided by the decision with zero input,” she told the board. “People living directly next to Osceola had zero idea that this was happening.”
Community members Lindsey Wolf and Linda Gardner also spoke up, urging the board to reconsider its decision.
“To say these children belong in a residential community like ours, it’s absurd. “To think that Osceola’s layout and design will ever be able to provide the type of security to give, give or take 200 students on campus and not out in our neighborhood getting in trouble is a pipe dream,” Wolf said before the board.
Gardner, who lives directly behind the school, echoed Wolf’s concerns, asking the board, “How are you going to keep unruly kids in there?”
She said she would prefer to see the schools used by locals in her neighborhood.
“We’re tight-knit. We all love each other,” Gardner said. “And we’re happy there, and we don’t want violence. Of course, nobody wants it in their backyard. But this is an open school, and we don’t have any schools for our local kids to walk to these days on beachside where we’re at.”
Levenstein said he toured the current Riverview Learning Center campus in Daytona Beach with board member Ruben Colón Friday. She also attended a community meeting Monday hosted by Volusia County Schools at the Osceola Elementary site to discuss the program’s transfer.
“I feel a lot better about it, and I think people could feel a lot better about it if they also just educated themselves, spoke to the principal, toured the school, listened to other people’s input that are actually there and know about it, ” she said. “I think in due time, it’ll be totally fine.”
The district led Monday’s meeting. Board member Carl Persis, Riverview Principal Thomas Soli and Volusia’s Chief Operating Officer Patty Corr welcomed attendees, informed them about the alternative education program, and provided context about the district’s recent rezoning and program transfers.
They led a question-and-answer-style discussion, using questions that had previously been asked at school board and city meetings. Attendees to Monday’s meeting were also able to submit questions on an index card to be answered that night. After all questions were answered, attendees could raise their hands and when called on, ask additional questions or share personal statements.
When asked if she felt Monday’s meeting calmed concerns for her neighbors, Levenstein suggested that there was probably a mixed bag of emotions.
“I think no matter what, the people who came here are really upset probably still left kind of upset,” she said. “But maybe, I think a few people (were) relieved a little bit just to have some of their questions answered.”
Levenstein, however, said she hopes her neighbors feel more comfortable with the change.
“We literally saw the school. I saw how many kids are in the classrooms. I saw the staff. To me, the staff is what really matters. “I see way more caring staff at the school coming in than I’ve seen at other regular schools,” she said. “Talking to the principal was really what really got us just very comfortable with the whole thing.”
As a current volunteer with Tomoka Elementary students at the Osceola campus as well as a mentor at Ormond Beach Middle School, Levenstein said she plans to volunteer with the alternative education program next year and wants to bring the students cookies, just as Jan Ramsdell — the immediate neighbor to the Riverview Learning Center in Daytona Beach — has been done for years.
Ormond Beach residents meet with Volusia County School Board
While the decision to transfer Riverview Learning Center to the Osceola Elementary campus cannot be changed, Volusia County Schools still hosted a community meeting Monday at the Osceola Elementary site with the goal of answering questions about the transfer.
Persis, the only board member present at Monday’s meeting, said the district also hosted a community meeting on Dec. 5 to discuss the transfer prior to the board’s vote, but only program students and their parents were notified.
“Was it anyone’s intention to keep it from you?” Exactly asked. “No. Was it anything shady, underhanded? No, I guarantee you that. It’s just that we hadn’t done anything like this, and we told the group that we thought we should and that wasn’t really what we should do.”
Although the Volusia County School Board recently decided to rezone more than 1,700 students next school year, Corr, the district’s chief operating officer, said Monday that the Riverview Learning Center transfer is separate from that.
“It’s not a rezoning,” she said. “It’s a program change or location change for an existing program.”
While some community members came to the meeting worried about an alternative education program moving into their neighborhood, Jennifer Schwartz, a neighbor to the school, said that wasn’t the sole concern.
“I don’t want the connotation to be taken out of this meeting that we’re horrible neighbors who are all up in arms because we don’t want those kids,” she said. “We want the people who are responsible for the communication and upkeep of the property to do their job.”
Joyce Shanahan, Ormond Beach city manager, said this situation falls directly in the district’s hands.
“It is not a city commission or city staff position. It was 100% the decision of the Volusia County School Board, not Ormond Beach,” she said. “We are just like you… This is not a city commission issue. This is 100% a School Board issue.”
Nathaniel Anderson, Volusia’s coordinator of student services, encouraged the neighborhood to view this transfer as an opportunity to help students grow and succeed.
“If you turn your back on them, how can you expect them to flourish?” he asked. “You look at this as a problem, when really it’s an opportunity for you to serve our students. That’s why they need to be there — because this is the opportunity for you to continue to serve.”
Didn’t attend the meeting? Here’s what was covered:
Who does Riverview Learning Center serve?
According to the district website, Riverview Learning Center aims to create a “highly restrictive school environment” for students to improve their behavior and social skills while still receiving educational services.
If a student in Volusia County Schools violates the district code of conduct, then that student’s offense is reviewed. A level-one offense is for students who are tardy or break a school rule, Corr said. And each level increases from there.
Level-three offenses, which could send a student to Riverview, may include fighting on school grounds, sharing malicious threats, posting inappropriate content on social media or vaping.
“Making malicious threats — it’s just not tolerated,” Corr said. “It doesn’t mean that they have the means to carry it out, but we take that very seriously.”
Principal Soli said that last school year, Riverview Learning Center served about 200 students.
The number of students in the program fluctuates frequently, as the program has rolling admissions. Soli noted that it’s common for the program to start the semester with about 25 students, adding more each week and eventually ending with close to 110 students at one given time.
Soli also mentioned that he has just over 10 students who will be returning to Riverview next school year because they enjoyed their experience.
“We do make arrangements if they’re really doing well and it’s the best they’ve done in years. We make arrangements because we want them to succeed,” Soli said. “We also have kids who come to us or who have not committed offenses, (but) just have fallen behind.”
Since Riverview has outgrown its current Daytona Beach location, the property will be repurposed into at least 30 office spaces.
What safety precautions does Riverview Learning Center take?
Law enforcement officers are present at every secondary school in the district, Corr said, and every elementary school that doesn’t have an officer does have an armed guard on site.
Corr noted that the current Riverview site already has a police officer present on its campus, so that will be implemented at the new location.
While law enforcement would intervene in the event that a student broke the law and was arrested, Amanda Wiles, the district’s executive director of exceptional student education, said that if a student was just acting out, staff would take care of the situation.
Soli said students at Riverview are not allowed to have their phones on them during the school day. He also said that students are only allowed to go to the bathroom on a one-at-a-time basis, and when they do go, they are escorted there.
“Now, they’re actually going to the bathroom to go to the bathroom because they know they’re not going to get away with all this stuff,” Soli said. “The students want to stay because they’re finally doing well in school. They’re finally having positive experiences with adults.”
Should neighbors be concerned about Riverview students running off-campus?
Soli noted that students running off-campus is not a regular occurrence at Riverview, and the use of exterior fencing and single-point entry work to determine such behavior.
“We provide a lot more positive experiences that we can, so I’m confident that (it) really creates an atmosphere where they don’t want to, most people don’t want to leave,” Soli said.
Corr echoed Soli, saying, “The likelihood of something happening is a lot less because of the teacher to student ratio, a smaller number of students, more teachers to a smaller number of students and because of the way that the program and the staff operates with those children.”
Will any Osceola campus buildings be demolished?
Riverview Learning Center will use 11 of the 15 buildings at the Osceola campus, according to Ron Young, the district’s director of planning and construction. Buildings 1, 2, 13 and 12 will be demolished in summer 2025, he said, and all portable classrooms will be removed this summer.
What does Riverview’s traffic and transportation entail?
Soli said that 98% of students arrive by bus, and that the program typically uses three or four buses at a time. Students who aren’t bused will be dropped off and picked up by their parents.
According to Corr, students are not allowed to drive themselves to district alternative sites.
When students arrive at the front door, they are greeted by a staff member, Soli said.
Soli also estimated that there will be about 35-40 staff members traveling to the school each day.
“You’re not going to have what you had over the years of hundreds of cars coming through there,” he said.