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    • Which students will attend a new elementary school near Wellington, Florida
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    Which students will attend a new elementary school near Wellington, Florida

    Pabio Posted on

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

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

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

    The district is one step closer to answering that question: Its boundary advisory committee met Thursday, Nov. 7, and agreed on a map that includes students living in the communities of Arden, Fox Trail , Deer Run and White Fence Estate in the area of the new school just north of Southern Boulevard.

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

    Binks Forest parents regularly face massive traffic jams during pickup and drop-off, principal Michella Levy told the committee Thursday, leading some to start queuing more than an hour before the end classes at 2 p.m.

    Learn more about the new schools: Where will the next new schools be in Palm Beach County? A look at the next 7 years

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

    The committee’s recommended map will now be submitted to Superintendent Mike Burke for review. Burke will make his recommendation on which students should attend the new school to the school board in early 2025. The school board has the final say.

    The new elementary school, which has not yet been named, will open in fall 2025 and will accommodate up to 972 students.

    Learn more about the new school: Palm Beach County’s newest elementary school will open its doors early due to booming growth. Or?

    Which Palm Beach County communities will send their children to the new elementary school near Arden, west of Wellington?

    Five major subdivisions are in play as the district considers boundaries for the new elementary school. According to the boundary committee’s plan, all elementary-age students from the following neighborhoods would be distributed to the new school:

    • Arden, a community of 3,300 homes under construction which encompasses the area around the new primary school.
    • Deer Run and White Fence Estates, neighborhoods just north of Arden.
    • Lakehaven, a community not yet built but expected to have 480 single-family homes and 54 townhomes directly 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 School with younger siblings also at the school would have the option to stay at Binks Forest. Their siblings could stay at Binks Forest until the end of their elementary school years in fifth grade.

    No other communities are being considered for redistricting to the new school.

    But the rate at which Arden is growing and Lakehaven is promised to grow, committee members worry that zoning all students into new developments will crowd the new school too quickly.

    “We’re in the middle of very rapid, very rapid growth, and our kids are going to be used like dominoes to fill a map with numbers,” said Nancy Gribble, a committee member who lives in Fox Trail. “And really, 50 kids in Binks isn’t going to hurt their capacity too much. It will allow for the massive growth that’s still taking place in Arden and Lakehaven. That’s why we’re here.”

    How will overcrowding at Wellington Primary School be reduced with the opening of a new school?

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

    The relief would bring Binks Forest Elementary School back to 80% capacity instead of the current 111%.

    In the fourth year the school is open, or in the 2028-29 school year, when the Arden development is expected to be completed, the new school would be at 103% capacity and Binks Forest would be 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 director of enrollment demographics, also said a new elementary school planned near Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens for 2027 and another new primary school in Western Communities planned for 2029 will help relieve pressure on the not yet opened school near Arden.

    Katherine Kokal is a reporter covering education at the Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected]. Help support our work; subscribe today!

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