Which students will attend Garcia High, West Boynton Middle? School Board OKs final maps

Palm Beach County School Board members have finalized which students will attend the county's newest schools, Dr. Joaquín García High School and West Boynton Middle School.

The board unanimously passed two boundary maps Wednesday developed by a volunteer committee, reviewed by Superintendent Mike Burke and then tweaked by the school board in February. Both schools will open on Aug. 10.

Dr. García High will pull students directly from four different high schools in the middle section of the county: Palm Beach Central, John I. Leonard, Santaluces and Park Vista. It will shuffle students at surrounding high schools to fill the gaps left by students who move to Dr. García.

West Boynton Middle, just south of Boynton Beach Boulevard farther south on Lyons Road, will pull from Woodlands and Christa McAuliffe middle schools.

Who was Dr. Joaquín García? 5 things to know about Joaquín García whose name will adorn new Palm Beach County high school

Go Deeper: 'What's fair about that'? Amid tension, initial boundaries set for Dr. García High

Inside the new school: A peek inside: What will Palm Beach County's newest high school look like?

School board members made no changes to either map on Wednesday evening.

"I know people are stressed and worried, and I want to support you through this process, but we have a brand new beautiful school and I think this is our best chance to fill it," board member Erica Whitfield said.

Parents, community leaders criticize attendance boundaries for Palm Beach County's new high school

Projections run by the district's demographics department show that 1,279 students will be slated to attend Dr. García High next school year.

Located off Lyons Road in the western Lake Worth Beach area, the school will have space for 2,600 students. The school will have students of all grades, although juniors, seniors and the siblings of those students from feeder schools can choose to stay at their current schools.

On Wednesday, parents of students who won't get to stay at their current schools pleaded with the board to rezone their neighborhoods.

Lystra Jenner and her husband, Steven, spoke up on behalf of their daughter and their neighbors in Savannah Estates, a small community south of Hypoluxo Road west of Lyons Road. They asked for their neighborhood to be kept at Park Vista instead of moved to Dr. García.

Nearly in tears, Lystra Jenner asked that her daughter be kept with her friends and tennis teammates. She said her small neighborhood was surprised it was involved in the rezoning process.

"Bigger communities with bigger voices have spoken up and fought for their kids," she said. "And they have now been pulled out of the rezoning. Savannah Estates is a small community, and we don't have a voice."

The boundary-writing process has been grueling — advisory committee members met for more than 22 hours and heard hundreds of public comments from parents and other members of the public on Dr. García High's boundaries.

Want more education news? Sign up for ourExtra Credit weekly newsletter, delivered every Friday!

Tensions flared as the process laid bare disagreements between elected officials, volunteers, parents, students and community groups about which students and neighborhoods should be moved in order to fill the school and backfill the spaces left empty.

Among the concerned: Elected officials in Greenacres who said their students are being sent unfairly to five different high schools, families living south of Hypoluxo Road who pleaded with the school board to rezone their neighborhood to avoid a dangerous left-hand turn and advocates who said that some communities were unfairly burdened while others mostly kept their boundaries intact.

"This is a badly flawed map for the simple reason that it discriminates in favor of an affluent community to the specific expense and detriment of poor communities of color," said Mabel Melton, a member of the advisory boundary committee, of the preservation of school boundaries within the village of Wellington.

In all, Dr. García's boundary map will touch nearly 22,000 students at seven schools, from Wellington to Palm Springs to Boca Raton.

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!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Which students will attend Dr. Joaquín García High, West Boynton Middle