Winter Springs charter school Choices in Learning seeks approval to expand

A public charter school in Winter Springs is seeking approval to expand from an elementary school to a middle school. 

Choices in Learning, which has nearly 700 students from pre-k through 5th grade, will have a workshop meeting with Seminole County Public Schools on Sept. 8 to go over the application to expand. The school board will make the final decision at its Oct. 2 meeting.  

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If all goes according to plan, the school will start construction in July of 2027, and have students on campus for the 2028-29 school year.  

“I’m just excited,” Principal Jordan Rodriguez said while directing traffic in the car line. “This has been a discussion for a decade, and I’m excited my team will get to bring it to the community.” 

Choices in Learning is what’s known as a public charter school, which is overseen by Seminole County Public Schools. The students get the same tests as other public school students, but the school is responsible for its own facilities. The school district gets a portion of the per-student state dollars.  

Rodriguez said Choices in Learning started in a church in Longwood 20 years ago, and has been in the city for about 15 years. He said the school gets about 600 applications per year.

The expansion is expected to cost about $15 million, he said, and would eventually add another 300 to 400 students on the campus. The school has already hired a contractor for the project. 

When the middle school opens, the 5th graders would move into sixth grade for the start of the 2028 year. But the current-year 5th graders will have to move to a different middle school for the 2027-28 school year before potentially moving back to Choices in Learning. 

Still, Rodriguez said many of the parents polled said they would come back to Choices in Learning for middle school – even if it means switching schools a second time. 

“They would have to apply through a lottery,” Rodriguez said. “But we could reasonably start with two grade levels.”

The middle school would have three planned elective tracks for students: an informed citizenship pathway, an emerging technology pathway and a health careers pathway. 

In addition to SCPS approval, it would require permitting from the city of Winter Springs.

Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann said the school expansion is a “great project” for the city. 

“I’d love to see them expand,” McCann said. “It has to go through the approval process with the city and school board, with traffic and safety and site planning. But we’ll keep up the constructive partnership.”

Long-term, Rodriguez said the school does not plan to expand into a high school. But over a long enough timeline, the plan is to do another elementary and middle school in the western part of Seminole County, and the school is also eyeing Volusia County.  

“That’s [the] 6- to 8-year plan,” Rodriguez said. 

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.