Which students will attend the new elementary school near Wellington, Florida

The school will provide much-needed relief to nearby Binks Forest Elementary, which is over capacity by more than 300 students.

More than 600 Palm Beach County elementary school students will be moved to a new campus next fall as the district’s newest school opens nearby Arden community west of Wellington.

But which students will be chosen to attend the new school?

The district is one step closer to answering that question: The Boundary Advisory Committee met Thursday, Nov. 7, and agreed on a map showing students living in the Arden, Fox Trail, Deer Run and White Fence Estate communities live in the zone. the new school just north of Southern Boulevard.

The school will provide much-needed relief to nearby Binks Forest Elementary, which has more than 300 students above its capacity of 1,000.

Parents at Binks Forest regularly face massive traffic jams during pick-up and drop-off, principal Michella Levy told the committee on Thursday, leaving some queuing for more than an hour before classes end at 2 p.m.

“I don’t think people realize that you can’t overpopulate Binks any more than it is,” Levy said. “We’ve been drowning for about three years now, so some relief would be great.”

The committee’s recommended map now goes to Superintendent Mike Burke for consideration. Burke will submit his advice on which students should attend the new school to the school board in early 2025. The school board has the final say.

The new primary school, which has not yet been named, will open in the autumn of 2025 and can accommodate up to 972 students.

Which communities in Palm Beach County are sending children to the new elementary school near Arden, west of Wellington?

There are five major subdivisions at play as the district considers boundary lines for the new elementary school. According to the boundary commission’s plan, all primary school students in the following neighborhoods would attend the new school:

Arden, a community of 3,300 homes under construction that includes the area around the new elementary school.
Deer Run and White Fence Estates, neighborhoods just north of Arden.
Lakehaven, a community that has not yet been built but is expected to have 480 single-family homes and 54 townhomes, immediately east of the new school on Southern Boulevard.
Fox Trail, a neighborhood east of Lakehaven and the new school on Southern Boulevard.

Current fourth graders at Binks Forest Elementary with younger siblings also attending the school would have the option to remain at Binks Forest. Their siblings were able to stay in Binks Forest until the end of their fifth grade elementary school years.

No other communities are eligible for redistricting to the new school.

But the sheer speed at which Arden is growing and the promised growth of Lakehaven had committee members concerned that zoning all students into the new developments would overcrowd the new school too quickly.

“We are being placed in the middle of very rapid growth, and our children are going to be used like dominoes to fill in a chart with numbers,” said Nancy Gribble, a committee member who lives in Fox Trail. “And really, fifty kids at Binks isn’t going to hurt their capacity that much. It will allow for the tremendous growth that’s still happening in Arden and Lakehaven. That’s why we’re here.”

How will Wellington primary school crowds be reduced by the opening of a new school?

Under the plan approved by the boundary commission, the new school would open in the fall with 651 students, or at 67% capacity.

The lighting would reduce Binks Forest Elementary’s capacity to 80% from the current 111%.

In the school’s fourth year open, or the 2028-29 school year, when Arden’s development is scheduled to be completed, the new school would be at 103% capacity and Binks Forest at 70%, according to district projections. .

But district officials told the committee not to worry about the capacity projection, which becomes more accurate as the school district gets updated data on school-aged children in new developments.

Jason Link, the district’s demographic enrollment director, also said that a new primary school planned near Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens by 2027 and a new primary school in the western communities, planned for 2029, will help ease pressure on the yet-to-open school near Arden.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist who covers education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected]. Help support our work; subscribe today!