West Boynton middle school will be built

BOYNTON BEACH – It was all set to be built, then it wasn’t and now once again it’s a go.

West Boynton will get a new middle school, to be built by the Palm Beach County School District, after the state Legislature approved a new law that allows districts to build schools without state permission if they use sales tax money instead of property taxes.

The state Department of Education rejected the plan in December, saying there were too many empty seats at other schools whose boundaries could be adjusted to distribute students more evenly. But the district argued those open seats were too far from where the new school was needed, near Florida’s Turnpike and Boynton Beach Boulevard, where a housing boom is luring young families to developments such as the Canyons. The neighborhood’s middle school, Woodlands, is about six miles away.

Some parts of the county have more crowded schools than others. Overall, the school district has 172,870 students now and expects about 6,000 more by 2023.

The new school, to be built on 17 acres next to Sunset Palms Elementary at 8650 W. Boynton Beach Blvd. west of Boynton Beach, is the only Palm Beach County school affected by the new law, said Wanda Paul, the district’s chief operating officer.

The district has allotted about $43 million for the school’s construction, to be paid for with money from a sales tax increase voters approved in 2016.

Before they were assigned to Woodlands this year, students who live in the area near Sunset Palms, which is filled to capacity, would have attended Odyssey Middle School, which closed a year ago and became SouthTech Academy, a charter school.

The district closed Odyssey, at 6161 Woolbright Road, because it was only about half full. Even though almost 2,000 students lived in Odyssey’s boundaries, fewer than 800 attended the school, which struggled for 16 years to win community support because of low test scores, lack of magnet programs and discipline problems.

Families in nearby neighborhoods mostly chose to attend charter schools and magnet schools.

Parent Beth Rappaport’s two children, ages 10 and 12, are among those who attend magnet programs. She said the new campus will be essential for building a sense of community in an area where students are dispersed among an assortment of schools.

“People feel there is a lack of good choices,” said Rappaport, president of the Coalition of Boynton West Residential Associations. “There’s a wonderful elementary school, but then there’s a gap for the children who want to go to a place nearby for middle school.”

The new school is not scheduled to open until 2023, although School Board member Karen Brill said she wants to expedite that launch.

“Next month I’m going to ask my colleagues to explore moving that up,” she said.