OCPS superintendent: ‘We need your help in being an advocate’

Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez left the Community Town Hall meeting with a message for families. 

“We know how much you advocate for us,” Vazquez said to the school officials, families and community members in attendance Thursday, March 5, at West Orange High School. “We need for you to listen and advocate for equal funding, because we’re getting less and less.”

Despite the district’s highest graduation rate in history at 97.2% and 100% of traditional schools being rated an ‘A,’ ‘B’ or ‘C,’ Vazquez said the district is continuing to face a decline in enrollment as well as significant funding losses, impacting the district’s budget. 

Vazquez said declining enrollment is an issue not only for OCPS but also other districts across the state and country. 

“For so long, we have only known growth,” she said. “You’re in the west, you’re still seeing growth, right? So this declining enrollment is new to us.”

Vazquez said OCPS started experiencing a decline in enrollment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, but the district expected enrollment to pick up in a year or two. 

In the 2025-2026 school year, OCPS saw a decrease in enrollment of 6,800 students, and the district is anticipating an additional loss of 5,000 students next school year. 

She said the drop in enrollment is a result of numerous factors. 

There has been a decline in the birth rate as people are waiting longer to have children and are having fewer children. 

Housing trends also are a factor as people want to sell their homes but don’t know where to go because housing has greatly increased the cost of living. As a result, people are staying in their homes and neighborhoods are aging rather than families with school-aged children moving into the communities. 

The sunsetting of temporary protective status for immigrant groups also has had an impact, with about 40%, or 2,500 students, of the decrease in enrollment being attributed to this, Vazquez said. 

Finally, Vazquez attributed the drop to the Family Empowerment Scholarships, taxpayer-funded vouchers that on average provides $8,000 per student for a family to send their student to private school. Other scholarships can help families fund home education or other educational opportunities. 

“Parents should have a choice,” Vazquez said. “It makes us better, because we have to compete. … But what’s happened is that those scholarships are being funded on the backs of public schools, so they are limiting our opportunities to continue to provide choice to our families. So all we say is give us equal funding.”

She provided an example of how the district has legal requirements but does not receive equal funding from the state to follow through on those requirements. Although the district is required to transport every student who lives more than 2 miles from the school, the district only receives 50% of the dollars to transfer them. 

She also said private, charter and homeschool opportunities should be required to meet the same standards. She said if a private or charter school builds a school, it’s “a lot cheaper” because they don’t have to meet the standards as public schools. 

“We need your help in being an advocate, because we can no longer fund that gap, which has led to not just fewer numbers, but we are also proposing to close seven schools for this school year, for the first time ever,” Vazquez said. 

The Orange County School Board is discussing closing Union Park Middle, as well as Bonneville, Orlo Vista, Eccleston, Chickasaw, McCoy and Meadow Woods elementary schools. All have seen a decline in enrollment throughout the past 10 years and are projected to still be below the 680-student threshold in the next 10 years. 

To address declining enrollment, the district has entered a partnership with Caissa Public Strategies LLC, a Memphis-based third-party recruitment agency, and renewed the partnership for the 2026-2027 school year. Caissa receives $935 for each formerly enrolled OCPS student who  re-enrolls in OCPS and attends a district-operated school for 30 days. The funding will come from the per-pupil spending.

Vazquez said this school year, the district was able to recoup $1.7 million in funding with Caissa’s help.

She said the next step for the district is to look at the end of this school year to see how many of the families that returned still are with the district. The district has a list of families Caissa contacted to know if the firm is the reason why the student returned to the district.

School principals are having to market their schools to entice families to stay with the district or choose public education when moving to the area. 

“I never thought in my life I would have to market Orange County Public Schools and do it in a way like today,” Vazquez said. “I started my day out in Brevard because there’s a company that is relocating here to Orlando, and they had some questions and concerns about public schools. I’m sitting in front of a group of about 100 people, and I am selling OCPS. It’s a different world. It’s a different mindset, but I believe in public education.”

A decline in enrollment impacts the district’s budget. Vazquez is having staff look into a 3% cut at the district level. She said she spoke to principals in January to prepare them for possible budget cuts at the school level. 

“We typically have been able to give them a buffer, and we’re no longer able to do that, so they’re going to get the dollars for the children that come,” she said. 

She said principals have requested they be given the option to decide how to make cuts at their respective schools as they know the needs of their schools. 

“We really are trying not to touch the schools,” Vazquez said. “We are prioritizing the schools.”

AI in the classroom

Vazquez said the district needs to “help our children know how to deal with AI.”

Teachers have expressed concerns of students cheating on writing assignments, but she said students often use AI to help with math. 

“They may not be using it in school, but they’re using it at home,” Vazquez said. “We have to come to a place where we feel, No. 1, comfortable that there are strong guard rails. … We have to find a way where we can work with our parents on how we effectively use it, or help our children understand how to use it, because it can be a tool that helps you.”

The Orange County School Board is not in support of AI, Vazquez said, and the board wants to see “very strong guard rails if and when” the district decides to move forward with AI. 

She encouraged people to provide feedback so when the school board develops and finalizes an AI policy, it reflects the community’s wants. 

She said the district is looking at an AI pilot program geared toward teachers being able to engage with content in a secured environment that will reduce planning time.