Palm Beach County school board agrees to build high school in Riviera Beach for $150M

Palm Beach County's school board members came to a hard-fought agreement Wednesday evening that they want to spend more than $150 million to build a long-promised high school in Riviera Beach.

The decision was an informal agreement by five of seven board members and not an official vote. It came after a year of back-and-forth about how to shuffle students at the existing Inlet Grove charter high school and Lincoln Elementary School to have space to build a new high school for kids in Riviera Beach.

Next, the board needs to vote to build the school by its May meeting, district officials said.

The board's agreement also came with the new promise of collaboration from the City of Riviera Beach, which wants to build a Wellington-style athletic complex useable by the new high school and the public. But that partnership depends on Riviera Beach voters approving one of three ballot measures to take on $55 million in debt to fund recreational projects around the city. The vote is scheduled for March 19.

More on the March 19 elections:Palm Beach Post Editorial Board endorsements for March 19 municipal elections

There are about 2,000 high school-age students who live in Riviera Beach who are currently scattered between five different schools: Palm Beach Gardens, William T. Dwyer, Palm Beach Lakes, Suncoast and Inlet Grove charter.

Speakers and board members heralded the promise of a new high school as a unifying factor for the city.

"We want to create a home campus where our folks can root for the home team," Riviera Beach City Manager Johnathan Evans told the school board on Wednesday. "The city is asking voters to approve a $55 million bond for the purposes of making investments in recreational amenities, and a large sum, about $45 million, would be spent in collaboration with the school district."

"We made a promise to the citizens of Riviera Beach and Palm Beach County that we would be constructing this high school," school board member Edwin Ferguson said. "I do think the time is right to make good on that promise."

Where will the new Riviera Beach high school go in Palm Beach County?

The plan favored by the majority of the school board includes relocating Inlet Grove charter school students to Lincoln Elementary's campus off Australian Avenue and spreading those elementary students to surrounding schools like West Riviera and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary.

Then, the school district would build a new public high school with room for 1,700 students at the Inlet Grove site on West 28th Street.

All of that shuffling would cost the school district a total of $258 million: $32 million to move Inlet Grove to Lincoln and make the elementary school campus work for high school students; $150 million to build the new high school; and $76 million already budgeted for improvements to North Tech and Riviera Beach Prep, on Garden Road near Interstate 95.

Board split on whether to build new high school in Riviera Beach

Despite the majority's agreement to move forward with the plan for the new high school, there was fierce debate over whether creating the school is the financially responsible move for a school district facing immense uncertainty about how a newly expanded voucher program and ongoing inflation will impact its budget.

"It blows my mind, the idea of spending taxpayer dollars in a place where we do not have a need for seats," school board member Erica Whitfield said. "New schools are a blessing that we need to spread out evenly, and not just build new schools for the fun of it."

Whitfield pointed to nearby high schools that were not crowded far beyond their capacity with students. Palm Beach Gardens High is at 86%, Dwyer High is at 96% and Palm Beach Lakes is at 100%, according to October enrollment counts. By comparison, Forest Hill High was at 115% and Alexander J. Dreyfoos School of the Arts was at 112%.

But others disagreed and said every student should have the ability to attend a school that doesn't require an hourlong bus ride in the morning.

"The children deserve to go to a school where they live," board member Frank Barbieri said. "They need to have that choice."

That proclamation did not sit well with board member Alexandria Ayala, who made a similar argument last year for students living in Greenacres during the boundary-writing process for Dr. Joaquín García High School. When Greenacres parents wanted to push the school's boundary west into Wellington to avoid splitting the city's kids into yet another high school, the board declined.

Ayala called the board's agreement to build a new school for a specific city "hypocrisy."

"We have communities all over the county going through the same situation," she said. "And to expend this (money) at this time with the numbers of capacity and usage? I cannot support it."

Will a new high school fit in Riviera Beach? When will it open?

Inlet Grove's existing campus sits on just 39 acres of land north of Blue Heron Boulevard. That plot of land is far smaller than the 50-acre plots the school district usually chooses for new high schools. Dr. Joaquín García High, which opened in August in the western Lake Worth Beach area, is perched on 47 acres off Lyons Road.

But Dr. García High was built to hold 2,500 students, and district staff say Riviera Beach students won't need that many seats.

Currently, 823 students who live in Riviera Beach attend Palm Beach Gardens High, 541 attend Dwyer, 130 attend Inlet Grove, 130 attend Suncoast and 103 go to school at Palm Beach Lakes High.

All told, the district will plan to build a Riviera Beach high school with room for about 1,700 students. That's about the same size as nearby Suncoast High.

Chief Operating Officer Joseph Sanches said Wednesday that the timeline for the plan the board appears to support spans six years:

• The long-planned renovations at North Tech and Riviera Beach Prep will be complete in August 2027
• Inlet Grove charter high school's new buildings on the Lincoln Elementary campus will be complete in August 2028
• The new Riviera Beach high school on the Inlet Grove campus will be complete in August 2030

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work.Subscribe today!