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ORLANDO, Fla. — After years of debate, the Orange County Public School Board voted to approve a memorandum of understanding to transfer the rights of the Hungerford Property in Eatonville to Dr. Phillips Charities.
The decision comes amid mixed emotions from both the Eatonville town council and residents.
A chunk of land, now about 100 acres, once home to the Robert L. Hungerford Normal and Industrial School in Eatonville has officially been transferred from OCPS to the Dr. Phillips Charities after a Tuesday school board meeting vote. The school was founded in the late 1800s to help educate African American students.
The deal comes after 18 months of public workshops and has Dr. Phillips paying $1 million upfront to OCPS with a fair price contract still to be negotiated between the two parties with input from the historic town.
This approval, however, didn’t come without backlash as residents and Eatonville Town Council members said they felt like this decision was made without their input.
“You can’t make a decision when you don’t have all the information,” said Eatonville resident Millard Livatt. “So, for the people in the Town of Eatonville or Catalina Park, there’s so many more things that has importance here.”
“The mayor made this decision on her own, and I don’t think it’s respectful of the Orange County School Board to pass something like this here on one body, one body and not the full body,” explained Eatonville Vice Mayor Theo Washington. “It’s a body of 5 and one body might support it but we can’t support something we don’t know anything about.”
Eatonville Mayor Angie Gardner says she apologizes to anyone who felt slighted by this move, but she felt she did what was right for a town that’s desperately looking to progress.
“This is for the people. This is for a people that for 138 years, it’s almost like living paycheck to paycheck, paycheck to paycheck,” Gardner said. “You have to fix the roof, need a new car but right now our wishes, who can fulfill a wish list?”
That wish list includes a green space, festival pavilion, an early learning center, a community hub and healthcare facility as well as a town center and historical museum.
It’s all things that have been included in the living master plan and agreement Dr. Phillips Charities presented with no charge to Eatonville.
So, when asked what they get out of this deal, Dr. Phillips says — nothing.
“This is our ethos. This is what Dr. Phillips himself did, what his wife Della did, what Howard Phillips did,” shared Dr. Phillips Charities President and CEO Ken Robinson. “They gave back to the community. What we get out of this is living the legacy that they asked us to do.”
A big question Tuesday evening was about holding Dr. Phillips accountable for its word, despite its more than 100 years of work. The answer was to create an advisory board that would ensure things go on as planned with both OCPS and the Town of Eatonville both saying they will do their parts as well.
There will be a community meeting Friday, October 3, at the Denton Johnson Center in Eatonville to discuss this deal and how all parties can work together to move this project forward.
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Brandon Spencer
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