Haines City High School has reached full capacity. Where will new students go?

Families new to Polk County who had hoped to enroll their students at Haines City High School were sent a letter on Friday telling them the school is full.

“We are excited that you are enrolling your child with Polk County Public Schools!” a letter posted to the district website and its Facebook account on Friday said. “At this time, Haines City High has reached maximum capacity and cannot accept additional new students.”

Parents were told in the letter that new enrollees have the option to attend “Ridge Community High, which has some available seats and is located less than six miles from Haines City High.” Families selecting this option would be able to use school buses for transportation.

The second option would be to request a “transfer for a student to another traditional high school in the district. “These requests will be reviewed by the Pupil Accounting Department,” the letter said.

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A parent or guardian would have to drive students, if this option were selected.

“The reassignment/transfer option only applies to students who are new to PCPS and moved to the area since the end of the 2021-22 school year,” said Kyle Kennedy, senior analyst for media relations with Polk public schools.

“All existing HCHS students will have a seat at the school, and all existing PCPS eighth-graders who were scheduled to attend HCHS this year will have a seat.”

Polk County's Davenport-Haines City area seeing rapid growth

Polk County is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the nation, and the Davenport-Haines City area is seeing rapid growth, he said.

“Most of the new schools we’ve opened in recent years have been in the Davenport area,” he said. “We will continue to monitor population trends in our region and use all available resources to serve the students of Polk County.”

Kennedy said Haines City High has a projected enrollment of 2,925 students, and including portables, the school has a capacity of approximately 3,000 students.

By comparison, Ridge Community High’s enrollment is projected at 2,263 students, with a capacity of approximately 2,800, including portables.

'The school will not be over capacity'

Messages for Polk school board member Lori Cunningham left at the district office were not returned for comment. She represents District 2 for the board and the area that feeds Haines City High School.

Principal Adam Lane in Haines City referred all questions to the district office. Principal Angela Clark at Ridge Community High School was in meetings Tuesday, the school said.

From the district office, Kennedy said, "The school will not be over capacity; there will be approximately 100 more students compared to last year. HCHS will not have to add lunch periods and the principal feels that the size of the student population will be manageable because of the steps we are taking to redirect new enrollees."

Haines City High also has seats for all incoming International Baccalaureate and career academy students this year, he said.

Ex-teacher: Lower impact fees attract developers but leave less money for schools

Cunningham's constituents and a former opponent in the past election, Anita Carson, who is now with Equity Florida, took to Facebook to explain complaints about the district's latest moves.

Carson, a former Polk science teacher, said the state legislature voted to no longer allow school concordance as a reason county commissions can deny development permits.

“School concordance is where they look to see are there seats available at the schools already existing or being built for the new development,” she said.

She also blames the Polk County commissioners for keeping “the impact fees down super low." And, lower fees attract developers but leaves less money for schools and infrastructure.

Carson said the state legislature has provided nearly zero PECO (Public Education Capital Outlay) dollars for public schools in the past five years.

"Public schools serve more than 90% of the students in this state, but we’ve had years where the entire PECO budget has gone to charter schools and $0 have gone to public schools from PECO state wide," Carson said.

“That’s why no one can keep up with the growth,” Carson said. “The state literally cut their budget to zero for a few years.”

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk Schools: Haines City High full, but new students can go to Ridge