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School Planning

School Planning is the process of planning and designing new district schools while monitoring development approval and the pace of new residential construction to ensure that educational impacts are properly mitigated.

School Concurrency

School Concurrency is the coordinated planning for future growth to ensure that school capacity is available at the time of impact of residential development. Flagler County has seen significant residential growth over the past several years and with it increased enrollment. This growth is expected to continue in the future, and it is imperative that we plan for it now.

Flagler County Residential Growth

  • Approximately 600 new students countywide since 2018
  • Approximately 187 new students in Flagler Schools during the 2021–22 school year
  • Approximately 8,400 new homes planned for Flagler County with reserved space for approximately 1,500 students
  • Approximately 4,500 new homes in the early planning process, resulting in approximately 800 additional students
  • Approximately 150 lots for new homes are permitted each month in Palm Coast.

ITT Lot Development

ITT Lot Development graph

Rezoning

To plan for future growth, Flagler Schools has rezoned our middle and high schools. Our current Five-Year Work Plan contains plans for a Matanzas High School addition, construction of a new middle school, and construction of a new high school. The preliminary cost for these three projects is $178 million.

  • Addition to Matanzas High School: $17,500,000
  • New High School: $92,500,000

Funding Sources

If we are to build new schools or add to existing ones, school districts are limited as to how they can pay for this. There used to be eight separate funding sources for such projects, but since 2004, five of those sources are no longer available. These were used when we last saw such growth and accounted for almost half of the funding sources at the time. Additionally, unlike other local governments, school districts cannot set their own property tax rates. That is done by the state legislature. Other than taking out loans or bonds, our primary source of money to build a new school is through School Impact Fees.