BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2021) — Palm Beach County School District is proposing boundary revisions for a new elementary school in Boca Raton to alleviate overcrowding in at least 5 nearby elementary schools.
The new unnamed school that will seat 1,000 students is currently only known as ’05C-1′. It will be built on 15 acres next to Don Estridge High Tech Middle School. It is scheduled to open next fall. This new construction marks the district’s first large-scale solution to the very obvious overcrowding that has been happening in our area for years.
The surrounding elementary schools including Addison Mizner, Calusa, J.C. Mitchell, Verde, and Whispering Pines would all benefit from this proposal in that they will reduce the overall class sizes of each one of those schools. This will be possible from the proposed boundary revisions that would occur.
Proposed Elementary School Shuffle With New School – Zoning
The proposed boundary revisions are a little frustrating for some because some neighborhoods will have to change schools. The schools would lose students from some neighborhoods and gain from others.
Calusa will greatly benefit from this as they currently support 1250 students and the school was only ever designed to support 968 students. This proposal rolls over 410 students out of Calusa to the new “05C” school. The new school is only 3 miles from Calusa and it actually sits within Calusa’s boundaries.
The boundary revisions would also send some Verde students to Addison Mizner which is not overcapacity. Some Addison Mizner students would be shuffled to J.C. Mitchell. Some students would be moved from Whispering Pines to Calusa.
Of course, the district has a policy that states that any 4th grader and their younger siblings may stay at the current school should they want to and if they could have their own transportation.
The proposal helps alleviate overcrowding and if completed none of the schools will be over capacity for at least the next two years. The district estimates that Whispering Pines could be at capacity by the fall of 2024.
The district’s boundary committee will be reviewing the proposal at a live Zoom call open to the public on Thursday 12/9/21 at 4 PM. You must register by 12PM on 12/9/21 to participate in that call.
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