The new, two-story Addison Mizner School’s expected to be done by July, in plenty of time for the teacher start and Aug. 10 semester opening day.
Principal Joshua Davidow, toting an open laptop with colors and furniture, gave a hardhat tour to Mayor Scott Singer, three city council members and school board chairman Frank Barbieri Jr. PGAL architects Ian Nestler and Kari Botek and Moss Construction supervisors were along for the walk-through on April 15.
“This is a single-point entry and parents will be buzzed in,” Davidow said at the school’s entry point with the nurse’s station, conference room and principal’s office.
The old grade school was razed over the summer. The new Addison Mizner will be a kindergarten through eighth grade on the same 11-acre footprint at 199 SW 12th Ave.
Classrooms for younger students are on the first floor, separated from middle school grades on the second. “Parents were concerned about that interaction,” Barbieri said.
The school has two sets of elevators and staircases, and large classrooms with windows. Little kids have their own bathroom in the classroom, as required by code, Nestler said. Three playscapes are covered for permanent shade. “We saved the big tree,” he noted.
There’s a science lab and separate large media room on the second floor with space for the school’s closed-circuit TV studio. The original school’s clock will hang there, Davidow said. The cafeteria on the first floor is the other large room in the school.
A separate room is set aside for students who stay after school for aftercare, 400 before Covid, Davidow said. Teachers have planning rooms. School clubs have their own space, called bonus rooms.
Separate drop-off areas address parents’ concerns about street stacking at school openings and closings.
During the rebuild, Addison Mizner students have been using portables next to Don Estridge Hi Tech Middle School on Military Trail. They’re the second set of students to use the temporary school after students at the new Verde K-thru-8 school that opened this semester.
In January, the city officially donated 15 acres of city land to the Palm Beach County school district at that temporary site for a new elementary school that hasn’t been named.
Here’s a link to Boca Voice coverage of the February 2020 Addison Mizner School meeting with parents. https://thebocavoice.com/look-at-new-addison-mizner-school-with-traffic-concerns/
By Marci Shatzman
