Many residents oppose losing park to school

CORAL SPRINGS — A proposal to relocate Coral Springs Charter School to a park about two miles away would alter the commute for more than 1,600 students and reduce the size of the park.

Newly released city illustrations show for the first time how much space the school would take up at Betti Stradling Park, 10301 Wiles Road. The new school building and parking garage would comprise about a third of the property.

More than 100 residents attended a town hall-style gathering Thursday, many of them wearing green shirts and telling the city they opposed the plan. They presented the city manager with a binder filled with more than 4,200 signatures against the idea.

“We don’t want our parks taken away from our children,” said Dawn Jarboe, 47, who purchased her home 14 years ago to live near the park. “We want our green spaces and not a three-story building there with concrete.”

The city has wanted the popular school, which serves grades 6-12 and is consistently rated an “A,” to have a three-story building with enough space to boost its capacity for students.

The city says the school’s relocation would make way for redevelopment on University Drive, where the charter school is, and give students access to playing fields by being on park property.

The school’s enrollment rate would rise, knocking down the waiting list of more than 2,100 students, said City Manager Susan Grant.

Betti Stradling Park was built by volunteers in the mid-1990s to stave off development.

Stephen Mathew, 54, held a sign during the meeting, urging city staff to “Just say no! Save our Park.”

Some residents asked the city to consider moving the school farther west, near Sportsplex Drive, where there is a city-owned site near fields. But that area already has three other schools, the city said.

If the school were built at Betti Stradling Park, it would be across the street from Coral Springs Middle School.

The city previously proposed moving the school to a parking lot at the Performing Arts Center on Coral Springs Drive or at Mullins Park.

The city is going to compile and study all the feedback received from the recent meeting and then make decisions, Grant said. No options “are off the table,” he has said.