School Planning helps Flagler Schools plan for current and future students. The department monitors enrollment, school capacity, new housing, and community growth, and works with local governments and developers to make sure school needs are considered as Flagler County continues to grow.

School Concurrency helps Flagler Schools, local governments, and developers plan together for new students as the community grows. When new homes are proposed, the district reviews how that growth may affect school enrollment and whether schools have enough space for future students. This coordinated planning process helps ensure that school needs are considered early, before new development adds students to our classrooms.

Flagler County Schools continues to plan ahead for future community growth. The district completed a major rezoning in the 2022–2023 school year to better balance enrollment and prepare for future development. The Matanzas High School addition opened in the 2025–2026 school year, but the current Five-Year Work Plan does not include construction of a new school at this time.

Even so, district staff are closely monitoring major residential developments that could bring approximately 15,000 to 35,000 new homes to Flagler County over the next 10 to 30 years, including both regular and age-restricted communities. Through school concurrency reviews, enrollment projections, school site planning, and coordination with local governments and developers, Flagler Schools is preparing now so future student growth can be anticipated and planned for responsibly.

Based on current Florida Department of Education construction cost data, adjusted to reflect today’s dollars, a new middle school designed to meet State Requirements for Educational Facilities (SREF) and Enhanced Hurricane Protection Area (EHPA) requirements is estimated to cost approximately $80 million to $90 million, excluding land. A new comprehensive high school designed to meet the same requirements is estimated to cost approximately $225 million to $240 million, excluding land. The high school cost of construction may not fully capture the cost of a modern comprehensive high school with EHPA, athletics, technology, furniture, fixtures, equipment, site work, contingency, soft costs, and escalation risks. These estimates, however, provide a planning-level understanding of the significant capital investment that would be required if future growth creates the need for additional school capacity.

If we are to build new schools or even re-imagine future school facilities with modern technological capability, school districts are limited as to how they can pay for these needed projects. Previously, there were as many as eight separate funding sources for such projects, but since 2004, five of those sources have been phased out. These were used when the State last saw rapid growth and accounted for almost half of the funding sources at the time. Additionally, unlike other local governments, school districts do not have the ability to set their own property tax rates. That is done by the state legislature. Other than taking out loans or bonds, the primary source of money to help build a new school is through School Impact Fees. From 2022- to the first quarter of 2024 the latest reports show that impact and mitigation fees totaled about $21,593,245.24

For additional data on Flagler County Schools and how we compare to other District systems please see the information from the State Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR).