New Boca Raton elementary school will combat crowding nearby. Take a look inside
BOCA RATON — More than a dozen cabinets were assembled and rolled through the front doors Monday morning at Palm Beach County's newest school: Blue Lake Elementary.
Crews were preparing for Wednesday, when 697 students, 53 teachers and even more staff members will make the same trek into the three-story elementary school for the start of the school year.
Teachers were allowed inside the building last Thursday, and they swiftly got to work. From "zen" classrooms complete with hanging vines to a wall-to-wall replica of Boston's Fenway Park, they put finishing touches on their classrooms — which still smell like fresh paint and feature scuff-free floors.
The school, built by Zyscovich, will open on 15 acres donated by the city of Boca Raton next door to Don Estridge High Tech Middle. With room to grow to an enrollment of 1,000 students in the next two years, the wiggle room is key in a part of the county that is seeing a surge of residents.
"This is a huge victory for Boca Raton and a great partnership with the school district," Mayor Scott Singer said. "With room for 1,000 seats, this school has taken out any future crowding issues even as companies, businesses and families flock to Boca Raton."
Blue Lake students will mostly come from Calusa Elementary, where more than 1,250 students attend a campus built in 1987 to house 968. Other students from Addison Mizner and Verde elementary schools also will start classes at Blue Lake this week.
NEW: 24 Palm Beach County schools will get new principals this year. Check out the list
More on Blue Lake: Boundary changes to fill Blue Lake Elementary and relieve crowding in Boca Raton approved
Behind the school's name: School board settles on name for newest elementary school with ties to old IBM campus
Inside the new technology at Blue Lake Elementary
Blue Lake's classrooms include technology that students got used to using during pandemic-induced virtual learning.
Most classrooms have a mounted interactive flat panel and a moveable panel, which teachers can use to show videos, lead exercises, draw and write in front of students or from different points around the room.
Each classroom also has an audio enhancement system, where teachers can use a wearable microphone and project their voice through speakers.
In addition to saving their own voices from straining over a room of 20 children, the system allows them to make sure all students, who often use headphones to deliver sound from virtual classes or videos directly to their ears, can hear them, according to Olivia Pasler, a fifth-grade teacher.
"Kids are very tech savvy," thanks to spurts of virtual learning and access to cell phones, tablets and laptops in their daily life, she said.
It took just over a year and $23 million to build Blue Lake Elementary.
The school sits on a T-shaped site just west of a man-made lake that was created to store water in the event of a fire at the nearby former IBM campus, which was dubbed Blue Lake in reference to the computing giant's nickname, "Big Blue."
IBM first bought the property in the 1960s to build a manufacturing plant to produce mid-size frame computers.
In 1967, IBM shipped its first locally built computer to the city of Clearwater. By the 1980s, a team of engineers called the "Dirty Dozen" were working on developing a personal computer.
At its height in 1985, IBM was Boca Raton's biggest employer with almost 10,000 workers. But in the next decade, that number was whittled to fewer than 1,000 before the company eventually moved out in 1996.
Boca Raton's newest school has new security features
Top of mind as the new school opens is security and safety of students and staff, Principal Seth Moldovan said Monday.
Like all district-run campuses, Blue Lake has installed Centegix alarm systems, which allow teachers and staff to start a school-wide lockdown that blares alarms, activates flashing lights, and sends notifications to all cell phones and computers in the school.
Moldovan said the building is designed so if he's standing in the cafeteria, he can see anyone coming into the school from any direction.
The building is equipped with security cameras inside and outside that connect to the school police office, he added. Teachers and staff must scan badges to get into and out of the building.
Many students coming from Calusa will notice that Blue Lake is a fully indoor school, and Moldovan said he was excited to get kids on campus to meet their teachers today.
"I can’t wait to see their eyes light up," he said. "Some kids have never been on the third floor of the building," he said.
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: Inside Boca Raton new elementary school and its plan to fight crowding
