What’s the solution for overcrowded St. Johns County schools?

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — School leaders say St. Johns County Schools are bursting at the seams.

The county is planning to add new schools over the next five years but district leaders are looking at how to rezone students now to fix overcrowding issues in Northwest St. Johns County.

Right now, district leaders are discussing a redistricting plan in the works that could help some schools find relief.

If you live in St. Johns County there’s a good chance your children will be rezoned to a new school next school year because of all the explosive growth being felt throughout the county.

“This year we’re experiencing a 7% growth which is the highest we’ve seen in the 16, 17 years I’ve been here,” Nicole Cubbedge, executive director for planning and government relations said.

Cubbedge resented several options on Tuesday during the district’s school board workshop and each option would help reduce overcrowding issues at schools.

One option is moving some students from Freedom Crossing Academy to Patriot Oaks Academy.

Freedom Crossing Academy was built for 1,500 students and right now this school has more than 2,200 kids enrolled.

Another option is moving students from Freedom Crossing Academy to Cunningham Creek Elementary School and Switzerland Point middle school.

These attendance zone proposals come as St. Johns County is building its newest K-8th grade school in the Shearwater development.

That school is known as “NN” for now.

Cubbedge told me it won’t be up and running until the 2023-2024 school year.

That’s why the St. Johns County School District is looking for a more immediate solution now.

“Even though we are looking at an attendance zone for NN that school won’t be in place for another school year so we started looking at is there shifting and balancing what we can do within the northwest where we have small pockets of available capacity at other schools,” she said.

Right now, there are three plans in place for figuring out which students will attend NN.

Plan A would include all of the Shearwater development and a portion of RiverTown. Plan B would split the Shearwater population up and then there’s Plan C.

“The Plan we presented today Plan C goes back to all of Shearwater, that 210 West area and now it includes a different portion of RiverTown,” Cubbedge said.

District leaders say although these are all formal plans currently in place, no decision has been made.

The school district will have two more meetings this month to talk about rezoning and redistricting.

The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

A recommendation will be made by the end of April by the school board with possible approval by May.

For more information visit https://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/zoning/.

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