The Okaloosa County School Board approved advertising a public hearing Monday night on a comprehensive rezoning plan that would redistribute students from Mary Esther Elementary and Longwood Elementary to six receiving schools across south Okaloosa County.

• The proposed rezoning would assign affected students to Shalimar, Kenwood, Wright, Elliott Point, Edwins and Florosa elementary schools beginning with the 2026-27 school year, if approved at the Feb. 23 public hearing.

District officials presented detailed capacity analyses showing the receiving schools can absorb additional students without overcrowding or significantly increasing class sizes under the proposed plan.

Capacity and class size commitments

Assistant Superintendent John Spolski said each of the six receiving schools currently has empty classrooms available.

“Each of these schools has empty classrooms. Some have one, some have two, some have three, some have six,” Spolski said. “Because capacity wasn’t established over the last few years by the number of classrooms as much as it was by teachers being allocated.”

Superintendent Marcus Chambers addressed concerns about class sizes increasing under the rezoning plan.

• “So if you’re doing this, does that mean now we’re going to have class sizes of 30, 32, 34? Are we going to be substantially different than we are currently? That answer is no,” Chambers said. “We’re not looking to make teachers’ classes 30, 32, 29, 28 at the elementary level.”

Chambers said class sizes would remain “right in the area of where we are now” if the closures move forward.

The district has built new cafetoriums at several schools in recent years, allowing former cafeteria spaces to be converted into additional classrooms. Chambers noted this infrastructure investment has created capacity that becomes critical under the rezoning plan.

“We have cafeterias that were cafeterias that are no longer cafeterias,” Chambers said. “We’ve purposely started the building of those empty cafeterias to become classrooms in order to have additional capacity.”

Planning process

Duscha Ross, Program Director for Reporting and ERP Services, presented the rezoning plan and said the district worked with MGT, a demographic consulting firm that has partnered with the district for 20 years, to analyze enrollment patterns and develop the new attendance zones.

“The purpose is extremely focused. It’s very targeted in the least disruptive way,” Ross said. “We have focused on rezoning to enroll students that we serve in a way that balances capacity, transportation and continuity of the educational process.”

The district coordinated with facilities and transportation departments to ensure the rezoning plan meets operational requirements, according to Ross.

• She emphasized that while some attendance zones may appear large geographically, the zones account for population density to balance enrollment across schools.

“While a zone may be sizable in terms of its geographic area, we’re trying to accomplish comparable goals of having size areas that still have an approximate number in terms of student enrollment and population,” Ross said.

Zone boundaries

The proposed rezoning resolution establishes detailed geographic boundaries for each school’s attendance zone using street-by-street descriptions. See Document

Edwins Elementary would serve areas bounded by Santa Rosa Sound to the south, with its western boundary running along the east side of Mary Esther Boulevard/Highway 393 from East Miracle Strip Parkway to Beal Parkway. The zone extends north to the south side of Beal Parkway and includes areas around Memorial Parkway, Hollywood Boulevard and Robinwood Drive.

Elliott Point Elementary would have the most complex zone, divided into three portions. The northern section covers areas near Revere Drive and extends east to Choctawhatchee Bay. The southern portion includes neighborhoods along Cinco Bayou, bounded by Florence Avenue and Overbrook Drive to the north, extending through areas around Beal Parkway and Memorial Parkway. The zone also includes all of Okaloosa Island.

Florosa Elementary would serve the western portion of south county, with its zone extending from the Santa Rosa County line east to areas around Mary Esther Boulevard and Shady Lane. The zone includes all Hurlburt Field base housing and extends north to the Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field reservation boundaries.

Kenwood Elementary would cover areas bounded by Racetrack Road to the south, extending north to the Eglin Air Force Base reservation boundary. The eastern boundary follows areas near Pamela Ann Drive and Forest Avenue along Garnier Bayou, while the western boundary runs along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Shalimar Elementary would serve two distinct portions. The northern section follows Lewis Turner Boulevard/Highway 189 east to the Eglin reservation boundary and Choctawhatchee Bay. The western portion covers areas along Garnier Bayou and Choctawhatchee Bay, bounded by James Lee Road and extending south to neighborhoods near Third Avenue and Katherine Street.

Wright Elementary would cover areas bounded by Cinco Bayou to the south and Racetrack Road to the north. The zone extends from James Lee Road on the east to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the west, including neighborhoods along Duloft Street, Riverside Drive and Tanglewood Drive.

The resolution includes specific street-by-street listings indicating which boundary streets are included or excluded from each attendance zone. Maps showing the proposed attendance zones were included as exhibits with the resolution.

Military coordination

Spolski said the district has communicated directly with military leadership at Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base about the rezoning plan, noting both bases have families affected by the changes.

“Both of these schools are adjacent to two separate bases,” Spolski said. “That was critical that I engaged with Hurlburt and the community and their leadership.”

Spolski noted the military installations are the largest employer in the area while the school district is the second largest.

Communication and support timeline

The district announced an extensive communication plan to support affected families and employees through the transition.

Communications are set to begin immediately following Monday’s vote, with outreach continuing through January and February leading up to the Feb. 23 public hearing. If closures are approved, family outreach would continue from March through May and into the fall of 2026.

Lindsay Maxey, Assistant Superintendent over Human Resources, assured that employees in good standing will have positions for the 2026-27 school year. The HR team will visit Mary Esther and Longwood monthly to answer questions and provide support.

• “Our employees are our greatest resource,” Maxey said. “The Human Resources department is going to be walking hand in hand with our employees throughout this entire process.”

The district has established a dedicated email address at southendzoning@okaloosaschools.com for questions and will update its school site locator tool to allow families to determine their new attendance zones.

“We’re trying to wrap the public in a communication strategy that ensures that those who have questions have a place to go, have a resource, have someone that they can communicate with,” Ross said.

School selection rationale

Spolski addressed why Mary Esther and Longwood were selected for closure rather than other south county elementary schools.

“Due to declining enrollment, geographic location, transportation, all of those facets that are tied into it, along with the predicted enrollment for those areas in those neighborhoods, that’s why we chose those areas,” Spolski said.

He emphasized the decision was not based on school performance or quality.

• “Longwood is an amazing school. It is not because of anything they’re doing wrong. It’s not because of Mary Esther — you wanna talk about a tight-knit family,” Spolski said.

Chambers reiterated that neither school was selected based on academic performance. Mary Esther currently holds a B grade while Longwood holds a C grade.

“We’re not closing or proposing to close anything based on a school’s grade,” Chambers said. “The work that those schools do with their students is fantastic.”

Next steps

Monday’s vote authorized advertising the public hearing but did not approve the rezoning itself. The board motion approved “the request to advertise a Public Hearing for consideration and approval of Resolution 26-03 and the proposed rezoning of student attendance areas.”

The district will not open controlled open enrollment for south end elementary schools in January as it typically does, according to Ross. The public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23, with a final board vote on both the school closures and rezoning possibly that evening.

The District has outlined FAQs here

If approved, the new attendance zones would take effect at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

Chambers acknowledged the difficulty of the transition ahead.

“This website right here is going to grow,” Chambers said, referring to the district’s dedicated rezoning page. “As we continue to get questions, we’re gonna add to that website so everything goes out to where everyone can have the same information.”