History of the Half-Cent Sales Tax
After multiple attempts to secure funding to address school building needs, Orange County voters in 2002 approved a half-cent sales tax to help fund the renovation or replacement of existing public schools. As part of this process, the school district created a priority list of 136 schools. After accomplishing work on 94 of the schools on the list, voters went back to the polls in 2014 to extend the sales tax for another decade, passing the referendum with 64% of the vote.
Thanks to voters, the half-cent sales tax has raised more than $4 billion for school building projects, with over 50% coming from tourists and non-residents. This funding has helped the district fix or replace 132 schools (with four more to be completed by 2027) and open 65 new ones to meet the needs of Orange County’s rapidly growing student population -- OCPS has consistently ranked as one of the top 10 largest school districts in the country over the past several years.
The sales tax money helped build new schools in some of the county’s fastest-growing areas, including East Orange, the Lake Nona area and, most notably, Horizon West, where four new schools were opened between 2021 and 2023.
With its sales tax money, the district also built new campuses to replace long-standing schools that had outlived their buildings, including West Orange High School, Orlo Vista Elementary, Union Park Middle School and Dr. Phillips Elementary School. Others, like Winter Park High School and Windermere Elementary School, got significant overhauls, also paid for with sales tax money.
The 2002 sales tax referendum required the creation of a Citizens’ Construction Oversight and Value Engineering (COVE) Committee to review and have input into the OCPS building program. The committee is made up of volunteers with expertise in construction, engineering, architecture, finance and auditing. None of the members do business with OCPS, and the committee is independent of the district.
Due to the half-cent sales tax, OCPS has also reduced its use of portable classrooms. This year, about 1,130 are in use across the district while in 2002 there were over 3,600.
Citizen Oversight
The 2002 sales tax referendum required the Citizens’ Construction Oversight and Value Engineering (COVE) Committee to review and have input into the OCPS building program. The committee is made up of volunteers with expertise in construction, engineering, architecture, finance and auditing. None of them do business with the district, and the committee is independent of the district.
Working with COVE, the district has developed prototypes for elementary, middle and high schools. As a result, the district won millions of dollars from the state’s SMART Schools Clearinghouse, which recognizes school districts that build high-quality new schools cost-effectively. Subsequent efficiencies in building design and construction processes have saved the district millions of dollars.