💼 🎓 Schools Lost 150 Students, $7M

It's Friday! The newsletter below is a bit lengthy today, but I promise you it's worth it. I got a chance to sit down with the superintendent of St. Lucie Schools, Dr. Jon Prince. There's also a ton of updates happening both in the county and right to our north and south. If you have some time, please give this one a read and share it with anybody who needs to stay updated with everything going on.

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Alright, let's jump right in!

☀️ Day: High of 84°F | Partly cloudy. Winds ENE at 10-15 mph. 5% chance of rain.
🌙 Night: Low of 62°F | Clear to partly cloudy. Winds SSE at 5-10 mph.
🌅 Sunrise: 7:17 AM | 🌇 Sunset: 7:36 PM
🌙 Moonrise: 2:33 PM | 🌚 Moonset: 3:52 AM
🎶 Sounds like: "Before I Let Go" — Frankie Beverly & Maze

St. Lucie County Public Schools Superintendent Jon Prince sat down with Sunland News after a recent workshop revealed the district lost 150 students when the state predicted growth of 400, a 550 student swing that cost about $7 million mid year.

What happened: Prince attributes the decline to Florida Empowerment Scholarships, which now fully subsidize private school students the state never funded before, plus homeschool families.

"It's changed the landscape and created uncertainty because you used to be able to predict enrollment year to year," Prince said.

How they handled it: The district implemented cost cutting throughout the year including travel restrictions and freezing non classroom positions. Prince said they broke even.

Context: Broward lost 10,000 students last year (an $80 to $90 million hit). Brevard County, twice St. Lucie's size, lost 1,200. St. Lucie lost 155.

"Comparatively speaking, we're doing really well," Prince said. 85% of students still choose St. Lucie Public Schools. Even charter schools were down almost twice as much.

What's next: Prince is budgeting conservatively for next year, planning for another potential decline even though the state predicts 300 student growth.

"I'm budgeting like we're going to see a repeat of this year. But what if we're up by 300 students next year? Our budget outlook all of a sudden is going to look a whole lot better, and that money will go directly into the pockets of our employees."

Still building: Tradition Lakes K8 opens August 2026 in an area with 40,000 new homes planned. The district is also rebuilding St. Lucie Elementary, Longwood, and Dan McCarty into one facility, which saves $30 million in maintenance costs over four years.

Teacher concerns: When asked what he'd tell staff worried about the numbers, Prince pointed to the district's context compared to neighbors and said there's nothing to worry about.

"You can't build enough private schools and homeschool all these families. We are still the number one option in our county."

Read the full interview

Vero Beach completed a term sheet for the Three Corners riverfront project in February and received a $50,000 good faith deposit from developers Clearpath Services and Madison Marquette on March 9, officially starting negotiations more than six years after the idea launched. The 38-acre project on the site of the city's old power plant and current sewer plant would create a riverfront district with a hotel, marina, restaurants and shops, with construction phased over several years once permits are secured.

👉 Read more (Vero News)

Port St. Lucie moved forward on a Marshall Parkway interchange at I-95 that's now on the state's long-range plan with funding between 2041 and 2050, though council members said it's needed now with Costco opening and truck traffic increasing. The council picked a west-only connection with braided ramps after Mayor Shannon Martin said an eastern connection would destroy a neighborhood and the Rosser Lakes preserve the city just bought.

👉 Read more (WQCS)

Commissioner Sean Reed posted that the City of Stuart lost $125,909.12 to fraud in October 2021 when someone exploited a flaw in the Paymentus online payment system, but the city didn't file a police report until May 2022 after being contacted by a Georgia sheriff. The money was never recovered and no insurance claim was filed due to a $100,000 deductible, with Reed questioning why elected officials who allegedly knew didn't talk about it publicly until now.

👉 Read more (Martin County Press)

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