The Osceola County School Board Tuesday approved the attendance zone for the new Canoe Creek Road school that will open with grades K-6 next school year with a plan to eventually be K-8.

That plan re-districts a few other schools on the east side of the county in order to alleviate crowding, or fill in available spots, like Harmony Community School, Hickory Tree, Michigan Avenue and St. Cloud Elementary schools and Harmony Middle School.

The plan will go into effect in August, when the still-unnamed Canoe Creek school, currently a charter school that the school district will take back operations of in August, opens with 639 students, including school choice students. It projects to have 896 in 2021-22, filling 83 percent of its capacity.

This school district page includes streets and addresses that will be rezoned to Michigan Avenue Elementary and the new Canoe Creek school.

The redistricting plan affects about 1,000 students, which would move:

361 from Hickory Tree to the Canoe Creek school;
155 from Hickory Tree to Michigan Avenue;
93 from St. Cloud to Michigan Avenue;
6 from Harmony Community to Canoe Creek;

While creating a zone for the new school, this plan relieves Hickory Tree, with district records show is at 114 percent of core capacity and 94 percent with portables. It will be at 78 percent next year, but is projected to over capacity again five years. Michigan Avenue would go from 61 to 87 percent, but would also be over capacity in five years, as will Harmony Community School (at 91 percent right now).

Hickory Tree Road is being used as a boundary line for Hickory Tree and Michigan Avenue Elementary. District officials said that’s because they project to purchase property for another K-8 school in the area, and this would prevent moving the same students more than once in a 3-5 year period.

“This is always a little bit difficult situation,” School Board member Tim Weisheyer said. “The last thing we want to do is move a student from one school to another, but we understand that with growth and development it becomes a natural function of keeping up with the community we live in.”

The schools in question are in Board Member Ricky Booth’s district 5, and said all six schools affected will still offer top-notch instruction.

“The Good thing about the east side of the county is that all our schools are great,” he said.