What Orlando Wishes to
Accomplish in the SE Sector:

Neighborhood Schools and Other Social Amenities

The Southeast Orlando Sector Plan is focused on providing those social amenities that are necessary to build community. These amenities include neighborhood schools, parks, recreation centers, convenient day-care, churches, and other public institutions such as post offices, libraries and meeting halls. These uses and institutions help to focus and strengthen community identity, by providing places where people can gather and interact in a safe, friendly environment.

In most suburbs, these facilities are dispersed, underutilized, and underfunded. In the Southeast Plan area, they will be concentrated, utilized to the fullest, and funded to the best of our ability. This requires that the facilities be planned well ahead of time, before land values increase too much. It also requires that the school and park facilities be properly and centrally located in relation to neighborhoods, and not simply relegated to leftover pieces of land on the outskirts of the development. The City is dedicated to finding and implementing innovative funding solutions for the provision of both schools and parks, and for other institutional uses as well.

For the Southeast area to grow in a competitive and community-oriented manner, a new approach to schools must be pursued. Large schools that force children into an anonymous setting and require parents to become chauffeurs inevitably work against our goal to create a sense of community. Small schools give children the attention they need to build a sense of identity. Schools that are within a short walk of most homes help to nurture neighborhood pride. Schools that build innovative linkages to local industries and educational institutions bring the hope of reestablishing a commitment to education excellence and building a long-term future for the next generation. A coordinated strategy addressing school size, funding, phasing and management is an integral component of the Southeast Plan.

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