OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – You may have read headlines that say Wyomina Park Elementary School in Ocala is closing. Those headlines are not quite accurate.

The Marion County School Board voted 4-0 at its September 22, 2026, school board meeting to put Wyomina Park, Fordham Early Learning Academy, and Bridgeway Academy back into its five-year Future-Focused Operations Plan. Under that plan, Wyomina Park students would be rezoned to nearby Oakcrest Elementary by August 2027. The Wyomina Park campus would remain open and in educational use, with Bridgeway Academy moving into the building. A separate rezoning vote is still required before any student is reassigned.

The vote restores recommendations the board stripped out on Aug. 11 after parents and teachers packed a meeting and argued the school never received the same public process given to other campuses. After a faculty meeting and two community sessions, Superintendent Dr. Danielle Brewer recommended keeping the original plan.

“Following the board’s action on August 11th, we committed to engaging directly with stakeholders regarding the recommendations for these three schools. Since that time, we met with the faculty of Wyomina Park Elementary and hosted two community meetings to listen to questions, concerns, and feedback from staff, families, and community members. After careful consideration of the input received and a thorough review of the recommendations, I am recommending that the district maintain the current plan as originally presented. While I recognize that change can be difficult and that there are differing perspectives within our community, I remain confident that these recommendations are in the best long-term interest of our students and the district as a whole,” Brewer said.

Chair Dr. Sarah James said she wanted two workshop ideas carried forward: keep the Wyomina Park name on the campus for whatever programs operate there, and look for capital money for covered play at Oakcrest.

“We had discussions, and great ideas were brought up about how to keep the Wyomina Park name. Board member [Nancy] Thrower really brought those up primarily, and so I’ve spoken with Dr. Brewer personally, and I would love to see the campus as it will continue to be used to keep its namesake of Wyomina Park, and so programs that go to exist there would be the program name at Wyomina Park. I think that’s a great way to maintain the namesake,” James said.

“And another recommendation was made to create a capital expense that would help ensure that we are addressing some needs at Oakcrest potentially. And so we had talked about covered play, and I personally have asked Dr. Brewer and the staff to take a look at seeing if we have availability to make that happen because I do believe that it is appropriate,” she continued.

Conrad asked for a written timeline of supports for the schools that will absorb the change. Brewer said staff can bring that to an upcoming work session.

“I really am excited to see this piece of the plan move forward. I think the district has needed it for a long time, but I’m also a little anxious about this next portion and the support that’s going to be provided to the schools that are going to experience a lot of change in a short period of time, so Dr. Brewer, I would like to request some sort of timeline as a board member. You know, what does that look like? When will the supports go in place?” Conrad asked

Board member Nancy Thrower, who represents Oakcrest and is in her final months on the board, objected to the “school is closing” framing and said the vote is part of a larger era of growth and rezoning the community is not used to.

“I’ll start by saying this has been really hard, and we are, like it or not, in an era of change,” Thrower said. Families tell her their grandparents and cousins went to the same school, she said, and that expectation is shifting. “I talk to so many people who have said to me, and this…we’re talking about Wyomina, but this is almost every other school. You know, they say, ‘my great-grandparents went here, my grandparents went here, my aunties went here, my cousins went here.’ There’s this expectation that you’re going to go there too,” Thrower said.

“How we manage our way through this change, and how we involve the community…is going to continue to define this board and this district,” she continued.

After the vote, Thrower said, adults had to show students how change is handled. The receiving school, she said, should welcome every staff member who chooses to come and bring every student and family into the new community.

“Once the decision is made, then the work begins, and there, in my opinion, there’s only one side of the rope at that point, and we need to all be pulling on it,” Thrower said.

What the plan actually does

The Future-Focused Operations Plan is the district’s five-year facilities framework: replace 11 aging campuses, modernize others, cut about 86 portables, and reduce four campuses. Staff has projected roughly $150 million in avoided deferred maintenance and about $2 million a year in operating savings.

On this piece of the plan:

  • Wyomina Park Elementary students would be rezoned to Oakcrest for 2027-28. Wyomina Park has been running a year-round calendar pilot; district officials have said this would be the last year of that schedule, with students’ last day aligned to the rest of the district on May 26. Recent figures put the school at about 468 students in a building rated for 664. It is a Title I campus.
  • Oakcrest Elementary, which has unused capacity and a newer classroom wing, would take most of that zone. Staff previously projected the combined school near Florida Inventory of School Houses (FISH) capacity after typical in-zone enrollment. James asked staff to study covered play there.
  • The Wyomina Park building would stay open. Bridgeway Academy, the district’s alternative program now in aging 1950s-era facilities, would move onto that campus. Officials have said Wyomina Park students would not be sent to Bridgeway. James and Thrower both backed keeping the Wyomina Park name on the site.
  • Fordham Early Learning Academy, now a choice PreK–2 program, would expand to include a grades 3–5 magnet.

How we got here

On Aug. 11, the board approved most of the operations plan but pulled Wyomina Park, Fordham, and Bridgeway after public comment. Staff then held a faculty meeting and two community sessions. A Sept. 17 work session previewed the same recommendation Brewer brought Tuesday.

Tuesday’s action puts the three sites back on the published five-year calendar: Plan the Wyomina Park rezoning in 2026-27, complete the rezoning and Bridgeway move in 2027-28, and expand Fordham in that same window. Attendance-zone maps and staff-transfer details are still ahead.