Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
New campus for Palm Beach State
After a decade of delays, Palm Beach County’s growing western communities finally have a college campus to call their own.
Palm Beach State College is opening a 50,000-square foot facility today in Loxahatchee Groves that will serve Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and The Acreage — areas a 2005 study found lacked access to higher education.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Maria Vallejo, provost for the new campus on Southern Boulevard.
The Dennis P. Gallon Campus, named for the school’s former president who retired in 2015, is the college’s first new branch in 34 years. It will focus on health sciences and technology, including a bachelor’s in nursing, a health information technology associate’s degree, and a medical coding and billing certificate program.
About 800 students are enrolled for a 10-week term starting today, but officials expect that to double by fall, a more common time for students to enroll in classes. Eventually, officials predict enrollment to surge to 10,000, due to rapid growth and development in the area.
“This area is going to be the center of the county in a few years,” Vallejo said.
Hunter Loomis, a 2016 graduate of Royal Palm Beach High School, plans to attend the campus. While in high school, he commuted to the Palm Beach Gardens campus to take classes through a dual enrollment program.
“The Gardens and Lake Worth campuses are equally far from me. It is about a 30-minute drive. The Loxahatchee Groves campus is only about five minutes,” he said. “This worked out well for me. I won’t have to drive as far all the time.”
Palm Beach State, which serves about 48,000 students, has expanded its mission. It used to focus mainly on associate’s degrees for students transferring to universities, but in recent years has added a number of certificates, technical degrees and bachelor’s degrees.
Still, the college has been slow to expand its geographical presence. The main Lake Worth campus was built in 1956, followed by Belle Glade in 1978, Palm Beach Gardens in 1982 and Boca Raton in 1983.
“For years, the Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and Acreage areas were just a lot of bedroom communities for people who worked in downtown West Palm Beach,” Gallon said. “But I observed around 2001 or 2002, it had grown up to something more and had its own set of needs.”
The state Board of Education approved the campus in 2006. But the project faced multiple setbacks after that.
The Legislature first approved $5 million for the project in 2007, but thenGov. Charlie Crist vetoed it, saying the state needed to be more frugal. A proposal to build a campus in Wellington fell through in 2009. The college secured the Acreage site in 2011 but Gov. Rick Scott twice vetoed funding before approving it in 2014.
The new campus’ $30 million building has about 20 classrooms and computer labs equipped with the latest technology, a large multi-purpose room and a room that simulates a doctor’s office. The design includes large windows that overlook two ponds and plenty of open green space.
But there’s no cafe or bookstore and the only library will be a virtual one, where students can access online reference materials.
The college plans to add two additional buildings in the near future, depending on enrollment and funding. These would include labs, a library/study space, a cafeteria and a study center.
Gallon, who will speak at the official grand opening scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, said he’s thrilled the project has come to fruition.
“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the residents of Palm Beach County to have better access to the programs we have at the college,” he said.
As for having a campus named for him, Gallon said, “it’s a little surreal, a little intimidating and very humbling.”
The college is no longer accepting reservations for the grand opening and is asking anyone interested to view a live stream at palmbeach state.edu