![Flagler County's nine traditional public schools' enrollment ended the year pretty much where they started. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/enrollment-1999-2024-2.jpg?resize=1000%2C591&ssl=1)
For the 17h straight year, and despite population growth that ranks Flagler County among the fastest growing in the state, Flagler County’s public schools’ enrollment has failed to grow.
At a school board meeting on Tuesday, Board member Colleen Conklin said development in the county was continuing “in leaps and bounds.” She had just attended the periodic meeting of local government representatives to discuss how that development has been affecting school enrollment and the fees builders pay to defray the cost of new schools–if new schools are needed.
What Conklin did not say is that in spite of growth that added 16,000 new residents to the county in three years, in spite of Palm Coast, the county and Flagler Beach issuing certificates of occupancy for some 3,200 housing units in 2023 alone, and in spite of similar growth trends in 2024, Flagler County schools are simply not attracting enough students to reflect that growth.
Students are going to private schools, to virtual schools, and staying home to homeschool: the number of homeschooled students has grown 58 percent in six years, from 706 in the 2017-18 school year to 1,119 this school year. They’re just not enrolling in Flagler’s traditional public schools.
Enrollment in the district’s nine traditional schools in May, at the end of the school year, was 12,659–almost the exact enrollment in the 2008-09 school year. It has fluctuated up and down since, and this May’s enrollment is up by 300 over last year, but it is hardly an increase over pre-Covid enrollment.
Three years ago the district made a big pitch to double school impact fees, arguing that an enrollment surge was coming, that it needed to build a new school by mid-decade, that it didn’t want to be behind. School impact fees are the one-time fee builders and developers pay for every housing unit they build. The fees defray the cost of new school construction. The School Board voted to increase the impact fee, which had budged since 2005, from $3,600 to $7,175.
Builders and the County Commission argued then that 14 straight years of flat enrollment did not support doubling the fees. They opposed that sharp of an increase. School officials considered the opposition deluded and insisted that growth was on its way. How could it not be, with so much construction happening everywhere?
In the end, the county, which had the authority to ratify the new impact fee, agreed only to a fee of $5,450 for single-family homes, with an allowance for a $500 increase for every additional 500 students enrolled. Even that incremental enrollment has not materialized.
The officials gathered around the table at the latest ILA meeting on June 12 were oddly muted about the anemic enrollment. (ILA stands for Interlocal Agreement, reflecting the joint agreement that controls how school impact fees are levied.) All the focus was on growth in general, though William Whitson, the district’s point man on impact fees, said it had gotten money from developers to “reserve” 2,466 student seats in future classrooms, based on developments in the pipeline.
But that number reflects an assumption that has not held true so far. A formula estimates that each new housing unit will generate 0.43 school age students. But the formula does not–cannot–say how many of those students will go to private school, will be homeschooled, will go out of the county, or will attend charter schools.
“This generation rate will probably hold for a year or two,” Whitson said. Like enrollment, it is almost unchanged from 2021. Which means that school-age students have continued to come in. They just have not gone to public schools.
Hunter’s Ridge, the big development at the south end of the county, straddling the line with Ormond Beach, has been growing substantially. But many families choose to send their students to Volusia County. The bus drives to Flagler schools are too long, having to cover a 20-mile distance, when the distance to Volusia schools is a fraction of that.
There was once devoted acreage for a school in Hunter’s Ridge. “That’s gone,” County Commissioner Dave Sullivan said. Only 17 students from Hunter’s Ridge are attending Flagler’s public schools, Dave Freeman said, and only four of those students were taking the bus. “We are looking at an alternative to that next year by using some vans instead of buses to get them a little bit quicker,” Freeman said. Flagler schools are working on an agreement with Volusia County to delineate the line from where, in Hunter’s Ridge, students can normally attend school in Volusia.
Nevertheless, the district’s projection is for either a new middle school or a high school, or both, to open in the 2029-30 school year, according to Dave Freeman, the district’s operations manager, though Whitson later modulated that: “Our new schools, should they come about, are going to be in that 29 to 30, 31 timeframe,” Whitson said.
“Unincorporated county is not generating maybe as much or as many students as other jurisdictions because we’re trending towards more of the larger homes, higher value, particularly in the Hammock area,” Adam Mengel, the county’s growth management director, said. “Those are typically going to be second homes or now retirement homes for those folks moving in, they’re going to have grandchildren versus children in the schools.” The Hammock is also big on vacation rentals.
The county issued 146 single-family home building permits in the nine months from July 2023 to the end of March 2024. In the 12 months ending in December 2023, the county had issued 434 certificates of occupancy–meaning that the houses were ready for residents to move into. Most of those homes are in Hunter’s Ridge.
“We continue to grow like everybody else has been in Flagler County,” Ray Tyner, the chief development officer in Palm Coast, said. In 2023, the city issued 1,339 building permits for single-family homes, and permits for a total of 2,131 units when apartments and duplexes are included. The first three months of 2024 point to a slight decline, but the annualized total would still be 1,916 total units permitted.
So far this year, the city has approved development orders for 742 units in four subdivisions or multi-unit project.
“So all the hysteria that we read about in the paper, Palm Coast is building 9,000 units here, 3,000 units there, that’s all going to take a lot of time,” Flagler Beach Commissioner Jane Mealy said. Tyner agreed, making the comparison with the time when ITT platted 47,000 lots in Palm Coast in the late 1960s, with 20 percent of those still unbuilt. But Mealy had a point: “My question really is, at what point does the school board need to say hey, X number of kids is coming because of that.”
That’s the point of the ILA group and its reports, Tyner said.
“I think people are freaking out because they’re seeing the buildings going up,” Conklin said. “It’s not even so much looking at the permits. They’re seeing massive building projects taking place and popping up.”
They’re just not seeing them go to Flagler schools.
Robin says
A useful addendum to this article would’ve been the enrollment numbers at private and charter schools within the the Flagler ISD and how they have changed over the past 20 years.
JimboXYZ says
The upside is we don’t have to build more multi-million dollar schools, instead that cost is diverted to 4 lane projects for roads & gridlock issues with inadequate traffic control. Water & sewage plants expansion that is grossly underfunded. Unaffordable Housing continues to plague the economy, as does unaffordable groceries. It’s a Biden (Alfin) America (Palm Coast) story unfolding into the misery of a day to day existence. A persecution of Trump while a drug addict cheats America out of his $ 1.4 million in taxes. Those impact fees need to go up to maintain the next round of repaving & any other infrastructure projects that cost more than new schools would cost. What was the number ? $ 52 million to repave the residential roads ? How many FCSO Sheriffs facilities could they build with those, 2.5 of them ? they could build more Pickleball facilities. Imagine that, a Tennis Center expansion that one of the reasons the WTA isn’t creating a Tennis tournament in Palm Coast is because they don’t have a dedicated Women’s locker room & showering facility ? Evidently higher prices haven’t slowed the approval of more growth for new construction, but unaffordable housing continues to be a theme in Biden’s America.
Steve says
“Persecution of Trump” Where there’s smoke there’s fire Jimbo. Guilty of 34 Felonies are alot of self inflicted Crimes. It’s only four more years it goes quickly.
Biden 2024
Jim says
Steve, you’re being unfair to ol’ JimboXYZ! He’s 100% right to compare the prosecution of an ex-president for felony crimes to the son of the current president’s legal woes. That’s an apples to apples comparison if I’ve ever seen it! And you must see that bringing in Biden on a discussion of the number of students in Flagler County schools is absolutely on point. It’s Biden’s fault, right JimboXYZ??!!!
And Alfin and Biden are almost indistinguishable (except Alfin is a Republican and Biden is a Democrat) so, again, he’s right on point! Ol’ JimboXYZ brings the heat!!!
Give ol’ JimboXYZ a break. If anyone in this county has their finger on the pulse of the community, it’s ol’ JimboXYZ!!
JC says
And what the hell all of this mean for student enrollment?
The dude says
There’s no families moving here. Just retireds.
No middle class families. Nothing here to support them. It’s hard to support families and kids by cutting grass, baking pizzas, or managing self storage units.
Mary Fusco says
Dude, PC is a bedroom community. Businesses do not relocate to these communities to pay top wages. They are looking to pay the lowest wage possible. In 1974 my husband and I bought our first home. We would have loved to be able to afford something closer to his job but wound up 65 miles away in a bedroom community. (yes, things were tough back then also). He commuted 90 minutes each way so that our children could have a great school system. Most of the families were middle class and commuted to work. It is what it is.
JC says
Wrong.
House being built next to me in the F-Section is a family from MI moving in with kids. Few houses in my block already have families in with children.
Those who have jobs do travel out of Flagler for work or they are fully remote. I work remote but my office is in Jacksonville, and I know a few coworkers with families who moved to Palm Coast since better cost for housing. Middle Class do exist but the majority of them make their living outside of the county, and they are perfectly fine with it.
Chip D says
Dude,
You hate everything about Palm Coast and Flagler County, I imagine that was the reason that you moved away. Just curious as to what utopian, blue paradise you are living in now. Maybe you could convince some others to follow you.
The dude says
Palm Coast and Flagler County are beautiful… it’s the people and the politics that make it a shithole.
Now why on earth would I possibly want any of those people to move where we moved?
Don miller says
Private schools and virtual having biggest years ever. What does that tell you about perception of public schools? They did it to themselves. Denying that they voted with their feet ?
Laurel says
Don Miller: Not really. DeSantis made Florida a great place to move to if you want $8,000.00 dollars a head to keep your kids home or go to private, Christian schools. Quite a draw! Meanwhile, the public schools get less and less help from our own government the taxpayers pay into. Then, we can wait for Trump to eliminate the Department of Education. Dumb and Dumber the kids will be, and much easier to control. After all, who’s monitoring?
I’m not going to go into another rant, again, about how my granddaughter did so well in public schools, because the far right doesn’t want to hear it. In one ear and out the other. However, I’d gamble she could run circles around your home schoolers with her sky high S.A.T.s and current high average in college. BTW, I too went to Florida public schools, and graduated from a community college with a 4.0 average. How’s your kids doing?
vance hoffman says
Since 1979 when the department of education was created school have become worse. (Google statistics) name a single thing the government has made themselves apart of and it’s gotten better.
Homeschool Mom of Flagler says
All the schools in America need to upgrade how they educate and spending money to build schools isn’t the answer. Homeschooling is trending! This is proving to not be a fad. The facts in this well written article do not lie! Microschools are popping up everywhere and if PS want to survive they need to offer hybrid options. For example, a reading class for homeschooling kids -focused on a drop off program. 2 days a week would be enough. Also, LA, art, science and math options as well.
Let parents choose what classes they want like an ala carte menu. This isnt rocket science, but PS are failing students. There are middle school children reading on a first grade reading level. This is an embarrassing commentary on the system. Then we have the violence in the schools and bomb threats? Why are we still even having conversations about building more public schools. The school system is broken. They have proven unworthy of people’s hard earned money.
These trends will continue till there is no money left to fund the building/classes and the teachers in it. America has made their bed and now we are literally laying in it. We need smaller neighborhood schools to bring back a sense of community. These large schools the community has are not enticing and they are equally difficult to manage.
Im not proposing building smaller schools here in Flagler, but overall this should be a better move if new schools are needed. Possibly a technical center for 13 and up would be a wise investment to recruit kids to trade schools. Chefs, plumbers, A/C, laborers, Landscapers, etc etc etc.
The school board doesn’t deserve their paychecks if they cant do better. Fixation on the same issues every year is redundant and a waste of tax dollars. Lets see you all actually forward think, please!
Laurel says
So, Mom, how many families can stay home to home school their kids? You’re right, it ain’t rocket science.
Callmeishmael says
I wonder if our dysfunctional School Board and all the negativity it spawns has anything to do with this conundrum.
Thanks Sally Hunt!
Joe D says
Why would students attend Florida Public Schools, when Governor Ron has siphoned off $7000+ tax dollars for each school age student to any parent who wants to send their child to a private school ( even millionaires qualify), OR who wants to “Home School” their child…imagine a 3 child family getting a sudden $21k+ “free income.” No receipts or program reporting from these parents required!!
All this MIGHT work, if the rules many other states impose on HOMESCHOOLING students were followed…annual standardized testing to PROVE your student is advancing at GRADE level… If they don’t, you can’t continue in a homeschooling program, and you have to enroll in private school or a public school…..FLORIDA has NONE of those verifications of progress….
It just pulls MORE money away from the already strapped public schools (reportedly Governor Ron’s attempt to “break” the teacher’s unions).
Just another stepping stone to the dumbing down of Florida education…
Villein says
Since there is no growth in the school aged population does that mean we don’t need 50 additional deputies every year?
JF says
Flagler County Schools completely suck. My kid went to Wadsworth and I took him out after I found out one of the teachers had several arrests and still kept his job. Then transferred to Rymfire elementary school where I found really fast that the good ole boy system is even in the schools. Shame on your redneck administration . I am telling you right now that if you are from anywhere up north your kids are in for a rough ride. I’ve seen it. Complained about it. And yet the administration refuses to do anything about it. My kid was being bullied by southern kids and repeatedly told to go back north, you don’t belong here,my mom is friends with the principle, on and on and on. Where does it stop. The administration told me that this is the south and my kid just has to adjust. REALLY!!!?? Shame on you and you know who you are. I asked to record my conversation with the admin at Rymfire elementary and I was told that I couldn’t. What are they hiding??? It’s ridiculous. I am telling you first hand that Flagler county schools are CRAP!!!
The dude says
Yep.
80% of the reason why we decided to move away… those horrible horrible schools. Horrible schools that will not get better anytime soon given the voting proclivities of flagler county.
Don miller says
So mealy says don’t panic it will take awhile to really overwhelm the system. That’s the problem . Put elected people have vision and no planning because if that. Instead of saying we time to pla if better she prefers time to sit and watch it happen to us.
Atwp says
Please don’t forget tax dollars going to private schools.
Greg says
Impact fees should raise to about $15000. One other close location raised their fees real high, to try to prevent future growth. The city is always crying for money, then raise the impact fee to support more of your needs. But I’m sure yiu DONT want to control growth.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
You know what would fix this? Lining up more black kids in bunnell and yelling at them over baggy pants. That’s sure to fix the issue. Maybe include a few more openly racist white moms on the school board will help things out too
JHM says
I just moved here, early 60s, no kids. My neighbor across the street recently moved here, no kids. Pretty much the story up and down my street. Very few school age children. Most people ate retired, middle aged with grown kids, or a family with one or two school age children. That’s just the prevailing demographic here. Even if they’re younger folks, kids are very expensive. That’s the way it is nationwide, it’s just more pronounced in a retirement destination like NE Florida that’s still somewhat affordable. Shift those unneeded but still collected impact fees to improving infrastructure in this city.
former palm coaster says
I liked palm coast, had to move for a job as there wasnt very many opportunities around. Home insurance tripled, company closed, and prices increased everywhere. So options were move to orlando or jax or move somewhere else entirely.
Joey says
Due to the high volume of crime here traffic over building overpopulation a lot of families do not want to raise their kids in that type of environment. I know a lot of them that left headed west or north palm coast has become nothing but an Orlando Miami Jacksonville.
dave says
I guess the big question of these 16,000 in 3 years how many of these included school kids. Just because you have homes and appts being built doesn’t means its for “families with school kids’, you have a lot of older non school people moving in.
Deborah Coffey says
So, the decades old Republican plan to demolish public education is working in Florida. Autocrats know they cannot possibly control an educated populace…only a system that employs indoctrination works for autocrats. Remember when Rick Scott tried to cut $2 billion from education when he first took office as governor? DeSantis has pushed the pedal to the metal with mandating fake history, awarding thousands of dollars vouchers for parents to move their kids to private school, killing DEI and threatening tenure in colleges and, more guns for teenagers, etc. So, dear Republicans, you voted for bad schools and you got them. Now, stop whining and do something about it!
dave says
due to school vouchers ( in 2023 parents can apply and use up to $8000 a year towards private schools that accept the voucher), private schools, magnet schools and the growth of charter schools. Its occurring all over this state. Look up Hillsborough, Broward and Duval Cty for ex. And its not just Fla, its all over the US. The share of children ages 5 to 17 enrolled in public schools fell by almost 4 percentage points from 2012 to 2022, an NBC News analysis of Census Bureau data found, even as the overall population grew.