News Features

Data Suggests Lake's Growth Having Minimal Impact On Schools

    Lake County’s explosive housing growth doesn’t appear to be impacting the county’s public school population. With the new school year set to begin in less than two weeks, the county is projecting to have just over 400 more students in the system, this fall. That number would represent just under 1% growth from last year.
   County officials this week said 44,045 students are expected in the district this year, up from 43,642 last year. While last year's number doesn't reflect students coming into the district later in the year (the district calculates official student population on the 40th day of school), it does provide a close estimation.
   The growth in the district is smaller than what might be expected in a county that is experiencing explosive growth. Lake County is expected to welcome just over 14,000 new residents this year according to US Census data. The county has seen almost 53,000 new residents since 2020, but those numbers don’t seem to be including proportional amounts of public school-attending children.
   In fact, many Lake County School campuses are actually projecting a decrease in enrollment this year. Locally, school estimates breakdown as follows:
Eustis Elementary: 381 (-8 students from last year)
Eustis Heights Elementary: 708 (+9)
Seminole Springs Elementary: 496 (-3)
Sorrento Elementary: 867: 867 (-3)
Umatilla Elementary: 684 (+8)
Triangle Elementary: (+8)
Tavares Elementary: (-17)
Round Lake Charter: 926 (-7)
Round Lake Charter Middle: 248 (-3)
Spring Creek Charter Elementary: 483 (-8)
Spring Creek Charter Middle: 126 (-1)
Eustis Middle: 784 (-18)
Mount Dora Middle: 825 (+33)
Tavares Middle: 1,000 (+3)
Umatilla Middle: 610 (+1)
Mount Dora High School: 1,461 (+50)
Eustis High School: 1,386 (-17)
Tavares High School: 1,447 (-54)
Umatilla High School: 910 (-3)
   In all, 403 new students are expected.
   South Lake County continues to see the largest growth numbers, with schools like Lake Minneola High School expecting 61 new students, and Grassy Lake Elementary School expecting 68.
   Knowing the numbers represent estimates and may not exactly reflect student populations for the new year, the district has been preparing for more growth. Umatilla Elementary School has added two new portables for the coming year, and Spring Creek Charter added a wing of portables last year to expand its classroom footprint. Portable classrooms can be seen in various stages of setup around the county, showing that the district is growing.
   However, if the data turns out to be accurate, it is clear that Lake County’s population explosion isn’t reaching the county’s public school classrooms at nearly the same level.