School Closures, Rezoning On The Table As Escambia School District Begins “Right-Sizing” Process

September 13, 2026

Escambia County Public Schools will begin committee meetings this month to “right size the district,” which could lead to realigning or rezoning some schools while closing others.

The School Attendance Zone Advisory Committee (SAZAC) will hold its first meeting on September 24 at the Vernon McDaniel Building on Pace Boulevard. The committee is tasked with making formal recommendations to the school board, likely by December, regarding school boundary realignments, rezoning, and potential facility closures or consolidations.

The December deadline is not set in stone. “That is our goal. We won’t rush it,” Superintendent Keith Leonard said.

“It’s going to be a difficult process, but it is one that is much needed,” District 5 Board Member Tom Harrell said. “We’ve got to right size our system. We have a lot of things that need to be looked at. We have facilities where we have fewer students, and others where we have more that need to be right sized.”

District 1 Board Member Kevin Adams recalled serving on a past SAZAC committee that oversaw the closing of Woodham High School and recommended the closure of about a dozen more. He noted that while facility closures are emotionally challenging and draw intense public crowd turnouts, the district must “right-size” its layout because the Chief Financial Officer can only balance declining funds for so long.

Adams stressed that options include attendance zone shifts and facility repurposing rather than outright closures, aiming to keep students with the public school system.

“I’ve already got parents telling me you can do whatever you want to do, but don’t move my child,” Harrell said. “Those type things happen, and the community and this board and the committee will work through that and come up with the right resolution for this district.

“We’ve got to do this,” Harrell added. He suggested that the committee design a multi-year right sizing strategy, enacting the largest facility and administrative cuts in the first year, followed by smaller adjustments in years two and three. He noted that the committee’s work will not impact the current budget cycle but will govern the following fiscal year.

“It is going to impact the services we give to kids,” District 3 Board Member David Williams, former principal of Pensacola High School, said. “Kids will be hurt by decisions we make.”

Williams said services for the district’s best and brightest students in high-level academic courses could be affected; if enrollment drops significantly in specialized high school tracks, low class sizes could force the elimination of advanced classes under class-size reduction mandates.

Leonard pledged to deliver a formal, written action plan, a “charge for action” in September, that outlines a clear path for the SAZAC committee and the school board. The plan’s top priority will be maintaining academic momentum while balancing fiscal realities. He promised that once the plan is presented to the board, he and his staff will personally visit all five school board districts to present the strategy to citizens and directly address community feedback.

“I will make sure that we have done some town hall meetings,” he said. “The way I believe we should do that is in each district and provide the citizens the opportunity to hear that presentation and then provide feedback and give their thoughts and ideas as well.”

“I will go to each zone. That is a promise,” Leonard told the school board.

The SAZAC (pronounced “say-Zack”) will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, at the Vernon McDaniel Building at 75 North Pace Boulevard.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under TOP STORIES