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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.
Comments
11 Responses to “School Closures, Rezoning On The Table As Escambia School District Begins “Right-Sizing” Process”
Anonymous Teacher. I 100% agree with you except on the tax increase. It’s not that I don’t want the teachers to receive higher pay, it’s just I believe the money going into our district is already enough. The top heavy approach to our district ties up the money that would pay for the rate increases. I wonder this, say we close 6 schools in the county, how many support staff and administrators who occupy a desk and a ridiculous salary will be let go. The answer is zero. The enrollment continues to drop and we continue to consolidate schools, but continue to employ the same number of “support” staff. That never works. It never has and never will. It’s time to trim the fat and allocate the wasted funds where they belong.
Proud Army Parent, I agree. I’m a product of the north end of the county schools and a proud graduate of NHS. Even 30+ years ago the south end has tried to do what is “best” for the north end. And those decision makers had never even set foot in a north end school. The north end schools are the county’s best kept secret and will always be. So, the south end needs to clean up around their own front porch before they even think about venturing to the north end.
Wonder if this is a going away present by the superintendent before he risks losing his position to an elected vs appointed person.
Ideas, how about you keep your “south” end ideas out of the North end of the county. The Escambi School District has already shut down too many schools down the North end. We are proud of the accomplishments we have formed after ther the shut downs the School Board has thrown at us. Don’t try to do it to us again. We might not handle it as well as we did the first few times. Keep your changes on the south side of Nine Mile Rd!
Back in 1965 when Woodham High opened, realignment was done to populate its opening. This took many of our 1966 graduates out of Tate and xfered them to Woodham. These students had spent their high school life at Tate and only had the one year to complete. If you are going to move students around give those that want to finish out their school years in the school they are in. We lost a lot of friends,
Start by downsizing administrative positions at the district level, including content coaching jobs.
Allow increased enrollment in specialized programs like West Florida or Brown Barge to attract and keep students leaving the district at those levels because they were not enrolled in specialized programs.
Train more teachers in AP and duel enrollment courses to hold a competitive wedge over paid charter programs doing the same.
Actually follow guidelines for running and maintaining HVAC systems to improve reduce maintenance responsibilities and costs on fixing and replacing systems.
Cease any and all acquisitions of new technologies without widespread community and employee surveys to determine if those acquisitions may constitute wasteful expenditure (which many would say Canvas was).
Approve to a vote a 1 cent tax to be split between instructional staff and support staff pay and existing facility maintenance.
Streamline district wide volunteer applications and allow easier community partner access to foster better community involvement and support from businesses and NGO’s dedicated to supporting students.
All board members and superintendents moving forward must serve 1 week per year as substitutes in schools to see the actual state of affairs in the schools they serve in.
Promote truly anonymous surveys for employees to disclose issues and needs without fear of reprisal or administrative cover-ups, and release this data publicly after review so there is true transparency from staff and the community on the state of education in the district.
Lastly, annual reviews of administrative expenditures and job descriptions to axe redundancies and streamline positions and pay to maximize the dollar per student.
You could start by trimming back the excess at the top of the food chain. Director this, superintendent that, this boss, that boss and the only thing some of them do is to occupy a desk and garner an inflated salary instead of truly being involved in what their JOB is. The district got inflated, then the bug hit and students didn’t want to come back to school where they’re accountable for doing work over certain times of the day. Just like people who want to work from home now who got spoiled. Until spending is controlled and useless programs are eliminated this is a lost cause.
Talk about school closures,in my opinion Woodham highschool should have not been closed,after all has been said and done it’s still a highschool..Saying this this ,the school board as a whole needs to smart on there decisions.
Let’s realign and close the ECPS Board… remove every one of them. Elect a strong School Superintendent and start fresh with a few forward thinking, common sense approach leaders.
I wonder if this will just increase the tendency to consolidate neighborhood schools into larger and larger centers. It seems that may have reduced costs overall (I don’t have those numbers), but it seems to have consolidated problems more – making waves of behavior issues pass through a larger student population making combating student issues such a huge problem that it is overwhelming.
I miss neighborhood schools – they were a point of pride in the community, and the more intimate setting allowed for more rapid addressing of issues so that students could just do what they were there to do.
My two cents (do I round up to a nickel now?), and mileage may vary.
A. Close OJ Semmes Elementary in Pensacola. Historically underperforming school. Small enrollment. Merge to NB Cook, Cordova Park, and/or Global. Property is located in the pricey East Hill area of Pensacola where new homes are going for $800k to $1 million each. Sell the property to a developer as is, let them take care of demolition.
B. Close and sell the property where Spencer Bibbs Elementary School once was. Now used as a training facility in Pensacola’s Eastside neighborhood. Undergoing transformation. Property values increasing. Site needed for housing, new commercial. Covers a city block. Maintenance and heating/cooling have got to be astronomical.
C. Add 6th and 7th grade to Molino Park and Bratt. Remove 6th and 7th from Ernest Ward. Close Northview OR Ernest Ward and consolidate the two to form an 8th – 12th school. If Ernest Ward site is chosen, turn NHS over to Escambia County BCC to form a north county sports multiplex/festival park. Consolidate sheriffs office, tax collector/tags, appraiser, building inspections, etc into a single facility. Consolidate post offices from Century (there’s already a PO in neighboring Flomaton), McDavid, and Walnut Hill, EREC office. Reduces bus trips for schools, lowers administrative staffing needs, reduce through attrition. A one stop shop for the north residents reduces need to travel south for many services.