Board weighs crowding plan

Some in Delray Beach likely to stay at Calusa elementary

A Delray Beach neighborhood has almost won its battle with the Palm Beach County School District and likely will be allowed to stay at overcrowded Calusa Elementary School, even though parents may have to come back in the next few years to argue their case again.

The School Board voted on first reading Wednesday to let students from the Casa Bella neighborhood, at the western end of Linton Boulevard, stay at Calusa. Although about 50 students from the neighborhood are at the school this year, board members said fewer are expected next year. A second and final vote will be Feb. 22.

The board is considering a proposal from

the district’s boundary committee to move 372 students from Boca Raton and Delray Beach to other schools next year as a way to reduce the population at Calusa, the most crowded school in the county.

The board agreed to carry out the rest of the plan but allow Casa Bella students to remain.

Although parents from Casa Bella had lobbied the board to reject the plan and keep their families at Calusa, several residents from other areas came forward in support of the new boundaries, including Danielle Rosensweig, PTA president at Whispering Pines Elementary, where some Calusa students would transfer, and Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie.

The plan “keeps Boca Raton students in Boca Raton schools, and we think this is important for our sense of community,” Haynie told the board.

The new boundaries move Calusa students to five schools in Boca Raton that have space, including Whispering Pines, Addison Mizner and Sunrise Park. But Calusa students are not the only pupils to be uprooted — some Whispering Pines students would move to Sunrise Park, and some J.C. Mitchell students would head to Boca Raton and Addison Mizner elementaries.

Some members of the district’s boundary committee, which recommended the plan to the superintendent and board members, said the proposal didn’t go far enough in relieving cramped quarters at Calusa, which they predicted will still face crowding in the coming years because the plan does not remove enough students.

“We’ll be back in two years or less to address it,” boundary committee member Nancy Gribble said.

Committee members said at least 400 students need to leave Calusa.

The school was built for 836 students but has more than 1,200.

Even with the proposed changes, Calusa is expected to have 1,065 students in the 2019 school year.