St. Lucie Schools Superintendent Jon Prince on earning an A rating, navigating enrollment shifts, and what's next

You recently mentioned at a workshop that enrollment dropped when the state predicted growth. What happened?

A few years ago, the state enacted the Florida Empowerment Scholarships. The idea is the money should follow the child. If a kid can't afford private school, they get those dollars and can leave a public or charter school for private school. But now all students in private schools also receive the scholarship. So the state is fully subsidizing students they've never funded before, and if you homeschool your child, you get those dollars too.

It's changed the landscape and created uncertainty because you used to be able to predict enrollment year to year. We know St. Lucie County is growing. They have 40,000 single family homes going up in the next couple years. We picked the most conservative model the state provides, which predicted we'd be up about 400 students this year. We were actually down about 150. So you add 150 to the 400 and that's 550 students, about $7 million they take out of your budget mid year.

How did you handle that financially?

When we saw enrollment down at the beginning of the school year, we already put things in place to save money. We imposed travel restrictions. If there was a position open that wasn't in a classroom, we froze those positions throughout the year. We were able to pretty much break even this year.

With 40,000 new homes coming, how are you balancing infrastructure needs with these enrollment uncertainties?

We're very well positioned. One of our new K8s opening in August 2026 is Tradition Lakes, and that zone is bursting at the seams. Our schools are overcrowded. Many of the 40,000 homes going in are right in the Tradition Lakes area. We anticipate we're still going to grow. This was almost a one time reset. We won't see large jumps we've seen in the past, but we're also finding many parents who took advantage of homeschool all of a sudden want to send their kids back to school. What seems like a great idea when you start doesn't seem so great when they've been with you for six months. We're seeing a lot of those students back.

The rebuild and combination of St. Lucie Elementary, Longwood, and Dan McCarty is actually going to save the district money. We're doing that cost neutral with property sales, but the amount of money we'd sink into those three older schools over the next four years would be $30 million just to bring them up to date with technology and infrastructure.

How are you thinking about competing with all these alternative schools popping up?

Competition is not a bad thing. We embrace it because competition raises our game. I want to be the number one destination for families in our community. I want our families to believe our schools are a destination for their children to get the best opportunity to thrive and grow.

We've never performed better as a district. For nine consecutive years, our graduation rate exceeded 90%. Only three districts in the entire state can claim that. Let's take Fort Pierce Westwood. In 2013, if you were a Black student at Westwood, the graduation rate was 53%. There's a study that 80% of students who don't graduate never move more than seven miles from the school they don't graduate from. Over time, if half the students aren't graduating, that creates economic decline.

But for seven consecutive years now, if you're a Black student at Westwood, you graduated at close to 95%. Last year, 50% of students who graduated from Westwood enrolled at Indian River State College. Because of the success of that school, we're changing the trajectory of students' lives.

What about retaining staff when there are so many alternatives, some that may pay better?

It all starts with your culture. We have a culture of accountability in St. Lucie Public Schools, but we also have a culture where we're going to treat people the right way. I don't care whether you're a teacher, a principal, a bus driver, or maintenance worker. We have a culture that you're going to be treated with respect.

Nobody's going to get rich in public schools, but people don't quit jobs, they quit bosses. We have one of the lowest turnover rates in the state. About 92 to 93% of our employees stay every year, and the industry standard is much lower.

I'm putting myself in the position of teachers who see enrollment declining and don't know if there's a pay raise on the horizon. What do you say to them?

Let's look at Broward. Broward lost 10,000 students last year. That's $80 to $90 million. Brevard County, which is about twice our size, lost 1,200 students. We lost 155. Comparatively speaking, we're doing really well.

There's nothing to worry about. We're going to be fine. I don't anticipate a continued decline in enrollment. You can't build enough private schools and homeschool all these families. We are still the number one option in our county with 85% of students choosing us. Even our public schools were down 150 students, but the charters were down almost twice that, and they make up 12% of our entire population.

From a budget standpoint, we're going to budget sensibly. I'm planning that enrollment might go down again, but the state is predicting us to be up by 300 students. So 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.

St. Lucie Public Schools earned an A rating for the first time ever. How'd you do it?

First of all, we have some fabulous teachers. Our teachers are outstanding. But it's all about relationships. I came from a family of seven. We were expected to join the family business if we finished high school. The only reason I went to college was I was inspired by a teacher. Mr. Woolwine was my science teacher, and he changed the trajectory of my life with that relationship.

That's happening across the district. It's not just teachers. It's amazing the impact our food service staff, maintenance staff, bus drivers have. It only takes one strong relationship with a school staff member for a student to be successful.

The Treasure Coast Hunter's Pledge is all children are capable of success, no exceptions. When I got here 10 years ago as deputy superintendent, I looked around and I don't think everybody believed that. We've done a good job of getting people out of the system who do not believe that. If you don't believe it as a principal, you can't be a principal in this district. If you don't believe it as a teacher or bus driver, I don't want you working here.

What are you most proud of when you look at investments like Westwood and Legacy High School?

Opportunity shouldn't be based on your zip code or the color of your skin. Opportunity should be colorblind. Regardless of our commitment to the community, we're going to commit to new communities and invest where we need to build. But in some of our older communities, we're going to show those communities we're committed to the same standard.

Fort Pierce Westwood High School is going to be identical to Legacy in every single way, with the exception of the programs it offers and the color of the building. The same thing with Tradition Lakes. An identical building is going to be built starting this summer adjacent to Dan McCarty. Those children deserve those opportunities.

Maya Angelou once said it's not what I say or do, it's how I make you feel. But I can make you feel good and I also have to follow up. I do have to do the things I say I'm going to do. What am I proud of? Everything I said to the board that as a team we're going to do, we're going to deliver schools on time, on budget. We've delivered them on time and on budget. And we've shown commitments to all parts of St. Lucie County, not just new areas.

This is year 34 for you in education. What have you seen change for students over that time?

In 11 years, I was in seven different schools, and almost all were failing schools. Every time I walked into a school, I saw the same thing. Every school, it wasn't a kid problem. It was an adult problem.

Kids are going to be kids. Adults are going to be adults. As adults, we can't be set in our ways. We have to change with the times. We have to pivot with our programs. We have to understand what the future is going to look like. What are the industries that are going to be here five, six, seven years from now? We work with our local economic development team and business community to make sure we're creating future employees with skills they'll actually need.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I want my legacy to be as someone who was a good teammate. When it comes to success, I know I'm the leader and face of the organization, but I like to work as part of a team. My teammates are the board members. They're my bosses, but they're really also my teammates.

I want the legacy to be that we continue to be the number one destination for families. That's very important to me because I believe public education is the genius of our democracy. What parents don't have an understanding of is what's happening now with choices. It's the shiny new thing. It's the Wild West out there right now. We've got private schools that are out there to really educate our kids, and then we've got these startups. What kind of education are those students getting? Are they learning to read? To write? To critically think?

There are bad actors taking advantage of our families. I want my legacy to be that I'm informing people that their child has opportunity here, and they're going to get the best opportunity with St. Lucie Public Schools. Public education is the genius of our democracy.