The Okaloosa County School Board unanimously approved Monday night to advertise a public hearing on rezoning boundaries for Pineview School and eight other schools in the Crestview area.

• The board’s approval came during the regular meeting following an earlier workshop where Assistant Superintendent John Spolski presented detailed boundary maps and a timeline for community engagement before the new K-8 school opens in August 2026.

“We want to align these attendance zones, these boundaries for our Pineview K-8 campus,” Spolski told board members during Monday’s workshop. “We will identify the students that are currently enrolled in our five elementary schools and our two middle schools, as well as our K-12 schools.”

The approved proposal calls for adjusting boundaries at Antioch Elementary School, Bob Sikes Elementary School, Davidson Middle School, Laurel Hill School, Northwood Elementary School, Riverside Elementary School, Shoal River Middle School, and Walker Elementary School to create the new Pineview School attendance zone.

Pineview will serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade with separate boundary zones for elementary (K-5) and middle school (6-8) grades. The District says they worked to keep these boundaries parallel to avoid splitting families with children in both grade ranges.

The rezoning aims to address critical overcrowding in north Okaloosa County schools. Spolski provided district-wide enrollment data showing the scope of the challenge, noting that each grade level has approximately 2,300 students across the county.

• “When we look at our South end elementary schools, we look at our south end middle schools and we look at our central and then our north end – each grade level has approximately 2,300 students every grade level,” Spolski said during the workshop. He said the district has about 30,000 students total across kindergarten through 12th grade.

Board Member Tim Bryant noted that when buses run on time and are fully staffed, the average bus ride is about 30 minutes per student, even in areas like Northwood that have complex boundary shapes.

“We used our natural resources. We used our natural rivers and roads. We used the interstates,” Spolski explained during the workshop. The district worked with consultant MGT to create boundaries based on student population numbers while using geographical features like rivers and highways as natural dividing lines.

The new school is projected to enroll approximately 500 students in middle school grades and 450 students in elementary grades, with the district’s Controlled Open Enrollment program serving as a mechanism to manage capacity. Spolski noted that the district currently has about 6,800 middle school students, and if divided equally among all middle schools, each would serve about 650 students.

• He also emphasized that current students enrolled in their existing schools will have the option to remain there under the state’s Controlled Open Enrollment policy, provided they arrange their own transportation.

Board Member Linda Evanchyk praised the common-sense approach to the boundary design. “I think this is the most sensical way of doing this and going to cause the least upheaval in moving families and students,” she said during the workshop.

The district plans to hold community meetings at affected schools during September and October to explain the proposed changes to parents and answer questions. A dedicated zoning website will provide additional information and allow families to submit questions via email.

• Bryant went on to share his personal experience with school rezoning, recalling when his family was rezoned from Antioch to Southside Elementary after purchasing their home in 2001. “Every school that we have in our school system is a great school. It is what you make of it,” Bryant told colleagues during the workshop.

The formal public hearing on the rezoning proposal is scheduled for Oct. 27, with the final boundary changes taking effect for the 2026-2027 school year when Pineview School opens.

Construction on the 1,200-student capacity school remains on schedule, with all foundations complete and structural framing underway on the 49-acre site west of the new Crestview bypass.