It has been a pain, like a stick in the eye, for the parents of elementary school students on the eastern boundary of the City of Westlake. There it has been — Golden Grove Elementary School — visible from many backyards and kitchen windows in The Pines neighborhood. So close, and yet so far. Nine miles far, in some cases, from the front door to the long wait at student drop-off.
As of early January, however, the distance and time required for a student to reach Golden Grove, located at 5959 140th Avenue North, has been cut dramatically for Westlake families. A 2.5-mile multimodal asphalt path now runs along the south side of The Pines neighborhood, hooks north around a linear lake and comes to a nicely landscaped loop complete with designated golf cart spaces.
From there, kids and parents can cross over a berm and onto the sidewalk at 140th and walk or bike the short distance to Golden Grove.
A similar path is planned along the north side of The Oaks, a 226-home development that is scheduled to get underway soon south of The Pines.
“It’s wonderful,” Palm Beach County School Board Vice Chair Marcia Andrews said. “What’s great is that the path is inside the community. It’s not out on a street, which is a big safety factor.”
At the loop, “there’s greenery, and parents can meet other parents,” she said. “It helps build community.”
The path is the fulfilment of promise made by Minto Senior Vice President John Carter at an August 2023 Westlake City Council meeting. Minto, the city’s largest developer and landowner, paid for the construction, Westlake City Manager Kenneth Cassel said this week.
The school board, the City of Westlake and Westlake’s Education & Youth Advisory Board ironed out the details so the project could move forward, Andrews said.
“It took a while to get there, but everyone worked together to get it done,” she said.
“It was important to get done,” added Vice Mayor Greg Langowski, who serves as liaison to the advisory board. “It’s another way of connecting the community… [and] it saves parents a lot of time.”
It sure does, Golden Grove Principal Linda Edgecomb said Wednesday. “Students are getting here on time,” she said. “It has eliminated a lot of traffic and really cut our car line.”
Edgecomb estimated that as many as a quarter of the school’s 964 students are using the path.
“Word is getting out, and more parents are using it,” she said. “The students are really embracing it. They’re so excited to be walkers — to be able to walk to school with their friends.”
The bonus for her and other members of the school staff, said Edgecomb, is that “we have time to really interact with parents on their morning walk, and build relationships… not just a quick ‘good morning’ through a car window.”
Meanwhile, most Westlake students in grades 6 through 8 ride buses or get dropped off at Osceola Creek Middle School on 180th Avenue North, even though Western Pines Middle School sits next to Golden Grove within view of many Westlake homes.
Only a few Westlake students attend Western Pines for their choice programs, which include Information Technology, Pre-Med and Graphic Art & Design.
At a meeting in January 2023, Minto representatives urged council members to press the school board to redraw attendance boundaries for Western Pines. To date, those boundaries have not been redrawn, even though, like Golden Grove, the school is technically within the City of Westlake.
The Indian Trail Improvement District, which owns 140th Avenue North, successfully sued in 2020 to block Minto and the Seminole Improvement District from connecting to the road. SID provides most of Westlake’s infrastructure. The circuit court ruling is being appealed.
However, more relief for parents is on the way with the planned construction of Westlake Elementary School, scheduled for completion in August 2027, and a “Western Communities High School” west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Northlake Blvd., on the plans to open in 2031.
The Westlake school was scheduled for later construction, “But I told them hurry up,” Andrews said. “Golden Grove is overcrowded.”
A new elementary school, currently named “West Acreage,” is scheduled to open in August off Southern Blvd. near 20-Mile Bend. It will serve the adjacent Arden neighborhood and likely other areas.
“That area is exploding,” said Andrews, adding that she is grateful to residents who voted in November to extend the half-cent sales tax. The extension is expected to provide $2 billion over the next 10 years. “This will allow us to replace buildings and keep updating older schools so that they’re safe, clean and conducive to learning.”
The Palm Beach County School District is the 10th largest in the United States with some 190,000 students. Its 22,800 employees, including 13,000 teachers, make it the largest employer in the county, according to the district’s web site.
In other Westlake news:
- Councilman Gary Werner has been appointed to the National League of Cities (NLC) 2025 Small Cities Council.
The appointment “is a monumental step forward for the City of Westlake, as it gives our city a seat at the national table of collaboration,” Werner said in an NLC press release.
Werner will play a key role among a diverse group of local leaders to encourage collaboration, networking and the development of resources and programs beneficial to communities that share demographics, size or location that can be replicated across the country, according to the NLC.
“Bringing the experience and leadership of Councilman Werner to serve as a member on NLC’s Small Cities Council this year goes a long way to ensuring every city, town and village has the resources they need to lift up their communities and improve the lives of their residents,” said Steve Patterson, the organization’s president and the mayor of Athens, Ohio.
- The Westlake City Council’s regular monthly meeting has been moved to Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at the Lodge at Westlake Adventure Park (5490 Kingfisher Blvd.).
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