A slight change to the boundary maps for Palm Beach County’s newest elementary school means fewer students will be moving to the new campus in anticipation of rapid growth in the Arden community off Southern Boulevard.
The previous plan by the school district’s advisory boundary committee included sending students from nearby Fox Trail, Deer Run and White Fence Estate communities to the new school, located next to Arden, which is west of Wellington.
In his recommendation to the school board Wednesday, Superintendent Mike Burke said the 55 students in those three communities should stay put at Binks Forest Elementary. Only students living in Arden and the future Lakehaven development directly east of Arden will be zoned to attend the new school.
A view of the planned West Acreage elementary school from the north side on Cane Field Trace in the far western part of Palm Beach County. Southern Boulevard is behind the school.
The school board agreed with Burke’s plan in its preliminary vote Wednesday. The board will vote a final time on the attendance maps on March 12.
District estimates show the school will have around 613 students when it opens in August, providing much-needed relief to Binks Forest Elementary, located five miles east of the new school on Southern Boulevard in Wellington. Binks Forest is more than 300 students over its capacity of 1,000.
Binks Forest parents regularly experience massive traffic backups during pickup and drop off, principal Michella Levy previously told the district’s boundary committee, leading some drivers to start lining up more than an hour before classes end at 2 p.m.
More on new schools: Where will the next new schools be in Palm Beach County? A look at the next 7 years
Which Palm Beach County communities will send kids to the new elementary school near Arden, west of Wellington?
The new elementary school, which has yet to be named, will open with room for up to 972 students. Due to quicker-than-expected growth in Arden, the school’s construction timeline was moved up by a year.
Now, only two major subdivisions are in play. Under the approved plan, all elementary-age students in the following neighborhoods will attend the new school:
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Arden, a community of 3,300 homes under construction that encompasses the area around the new elementary school.
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Lakehaven, a community not yet built but is expected to have 480 single family homes and 54 townhomes directly east of the new school on Southern Boulevard.
Current fourth graders at Binks Forest Elementary with younger siblings also at the school would have the option to stay at Binks Forest. Their siblings could stay at Binks Forest through the end of their elementary school years in fifth grade.
Superintendent Mike Burke’s final recommendation for the attendance zone for Palm Beach County’s newest elementary school, which will open in August. Students from Arden and the future Lakehaven development will be the only students attending the school.
Will rapid growth near Wellington fill new elementary school too quickly?
Burke’s decision to leave around five dozen students at Binks Forest Elementary came in response to concerns from the boundary committee about the sheer rate at which nearby communities are filling in.
Committee members said moving too many neighborhoods into the attendance zone while Arden is still building homes could crowd the new school too quickly.
“We’re being put in the middle of very rapid, fast growth, and our kids are going to be used as dominoes to fill in a map with numbers,” Nancy Gribble, a committee member who lives in Fox Trail, said in November. “And really, 50 kids at Binks is not going to hurt their capacity that much. It will allow for the massive growth that is still taking place at Arden and Lakehaven.”
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Under the new boundary plan, the new school will open at 63% of its capacity. The relief would bring Binks Forest Elementary down to 84% full instead of its current 111%.
In the fourth year the school is open, or the 2028-29 school year when the Arden development is scheduled to be complete, the new school would be at 97% of its capacity and Binks Forest would be at 75%, according to district projections.
All students at both the new school and Binks Forest will continue on to Wellington Landings Middle School.
Where will the next new schools open in Palm Beach County?
The school district has plans for several new schools in coming years:
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Fall 2027: New elementary school in Palm Beach Gardens, likely serving Alton and Avenir communities
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Fall 2028: New high school opening at the far west end of Northlake Boulevard serving the Westlake area
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Fall 2029: A new elementary school in the western communities to relieve pressure on the new school opening this fall
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By fall 2030: A new high school in Riviera Beach
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Fall 2030: A new K-8 school in Delray Beach
Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today!
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New elementary school near Wellington: Which students will attend?