The official groundbreaking for the new elementary school to be located in the City of Westlake is set for Thursday, April 30.
“I know everyone is very excited about the new school,” Westlake Vice Mayor Greg Langowski said this week. “It’s going to be in the heart of the city… where parents can walk their children to school or drop them in cars or even golf carts… It brings a real sense of community.”
Technically, there are three other schools located within the 6.5 square miles of Westlake — Seminole Ridge High School on Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, plus Golden Grove Elementary School and Western Pines Middle School on 140th Avenue North. However, a lack of road connectivity to 140th Avenue has forced some parents to drive miles out of the way for years to drop students off at those schools.
The new school — temporarily designated West Community Elementary — will be located at the intersection of Persimmon Blvd. and Green Lane. It’s scheduled to open in August 2027.
“I love the idea of keeping people involved in a local school,” Langowski said.
Langowski is among several Westlake and Palm Beach County officials who are expected to attend the 9 a.m. event. They include Westlake Councilman Gary Werner and longtime District 6 School Board Member Marcia Andrews. The public is invited.
Andrews, who is not seeking re-election in November, shepherded Saddle View Elementary School near Arden and the planned Westlake school into early construction due to the boom in home sales and population growth in the western communities. The Westlake school will be constructed off the same basic plan as Saddle View, which opened last August just outside the gates of the Arden community.
Werner said that while he is happy to see the new school on its way, it won’t be without problems — mainly increased traffic volumes in an area already congested by vehicles entering and leaving Seminole Ridge twice a day.
“It’s nice to have it centrally located… [and] it will be convenient for parents,” he said. “But it’s going to have a significant impact on traffic… Still, that’s part of living in a community. You have to balance those interests.”
Langowski serves as the council’s liaison to Westlake’s Education Advisory Board and said he has been “in constant conversation” with school officials regarding tweaks to the school’s design.
He hopes to be the council’s representative on a committee of residents and parents who will be involved in selecting everything from the school’s name, colors and mascot to interviewing candidates for principal and recommending a name to the Palm Beach County School Board. “I plan to continue to be involved in the process,” Langowski said.
The school is being built to accommodate 970 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, school officials have said. There will be no fifth-grade class in the school’s first year, so as not to disrupt students who have previously attended another school.
Langowski said he has been told that approximately 75 percent of the students will be drawn from Westlake households, while a majority of the remaining 25 percent will come from the Avenir development on Northlake Blvd.
The school will be 96,000 square feet in three stories. Kindergarten and grade one will be on the first floor, with grades two and three on the second, and four and five on the third.
The design by Miami-based Zyscovich Architects draws inspiration from structures in the community — the tall glass walls of the nearby Palm Beach County Tax Collector’s Office, the modern metal canopy of the local Publix supermarket and the Minto Communities USA sales office, according to a presentation shared by the school district at a recent meeting.
