Public can voice opinion on new location for school

More than 1,600 students would have to adjust their commutes if Coral Springs Charter School changes its address to a new location about 2 miles away.

The city will be seeking the public’s input on the proposal for a new site for the school during a community meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Coral Springs Charter School, at 3205 N. University Drive. City staff will deliver a presentation.

The charter school, at the corner of University Drive and Sample Road, is on land the city wants for a future downtown. Relocating it to Betti Stradling Park, at 10301 Wiles Road, would offer room for building a larger school with access to athletic fields, the reasoning by the city goes.

The land would remain a park, just have the addition of a school. The plan has drawn opposition from some neighbors who live near the park.

Ty Vassil, a Margate fire division chief who lives in the area, said residents are concerned. He said he has a petition with 1,300 names on it. “It’s our green space,” he said. “We don’t want a commercial structure with a parking garage in the middle of our park. It’s not the appropriate place to put it.”

The city wanted the school to have a new, three-story building with enough space to boost its capacity from 1,645 students to 2,100. There is a waiting list of 2,200 students for the popular school, which is consistently rated an “A,” and serves grades 6-12.

In past years, the city has proposed moving the school to a parking lot at the Performing Arts Center on Coral Springs Drive, or at Mullins Park.

“A lack of planning on their part years ago shouldn’t constitute a lack of quality of our lives,” Vassil said. “Everyone is trying to save park land right now.”