By Steve Plunkett
The head of the Gulf Stream School asked for — and received — permission to boost enrollment past the town’s 250-student cap, but only after attendance exceeded the limit for more than two years.
The school currently has 293 students after enrolling 270 the last school year and 260 the previous year. Enrollment was 232 when Dr. Gray Smith took over as head of the school in 2019-20 amid COVID-related financial troubles, he said.
“Before I begin, I do want to acknowledge that the school is over-enrolled at this point,” Smith told town commissioners on Jan. 13. “We can no longer meet budget at 250.”
Gulf Stream and the school agreed to limit enrollment and future building when the town OK’d construction of second-story classrooms in 1994.
Smith originally wanted to add a prefabricated 625-square-foot building in the parking lot to store food so he could offer students on-campus lunches. But when town officials and school representatives reviewed the proposal, they realized the 1994 agreement would have to be amended first to raise the enrollment cap and second to allow more construction.
“I do want to acknowledge that we’re doing this backwards to some extent,” Smith said. “I do apologize for that.”
Smith said Gulf Stream School’s current facilities can accommodate 300 students without adding any more buildings.
The school also tries to cover its expenses with tuition and fundraisers without touching its endowment, he said.
Its expenses have skyrocketed since 1994, Smith said, going from $42,376 for insurance to $298,000, for example, and from zero dollars for technology to more than $300,000. The school also now employs a full-time security professional and a full-time school nurse.
“Even at 300 students, we would project only a modest end-of-year budget surplus,” Smith said.
He also said the school has minimized disruptions to its neighbors by altering the way parents drop off and pick up their children, with younger students channeled to Gulfstream Road and older ones to State Road A1A. As a result, morning arrivals are finished by 8:15 a.m. and afternoon dismissals take just 10 to 18 minutes.
Police Capt. John Haseley said cars arriving early lead to backups.
“Like all parents, everybody wants to be first. That’s what creates the lines,” Haseley said. “Once the line starts flowing, it moves pretty rapidly.”
About 20 students live close enough to walk to school, Smith said.
Commissioners Paul Lyons, Joan Orthwein and Thom Smith did not want to authorize a 300-student cap without more input from town residents.
Thom Smith, who was on the school’s board of trustees when the 1994 agreement was reached, said negotiations went on for months.
“If you read the history of it, it was thought to be permanent,” said Smith, who added that he was not opposed to amending the agreement.
Orthwein said: “I’d hate to see you next in 10 more years, you say 350 or 400.”
But Gray Smith called 300 students the “tipping point.”
“If you’re managing the school on a day-to-day basis and you’re seeing the magic that happens there, yeah … I would not want to see us move over 300,” he said.
Michael Glennon, who lives at the corner of Gulfstream Road and Lakeview Drive, said the school was one of the reasons he and his wife bought their home in 2020.
“Being able to walk to school every morning is simply unmatched,” he said. “I certainly am impacted by the car line which, you know, no question is sometimes a frustration, but kind of the price you pay.”
To allow progress on the food storage building, commissioners agreed to make the limit 300 students for this school year only, and possibly extending it after hearing from the public. They also approved amending the agreement to allow for the new construction, which will still have to go through review by the Architectural Review and Planning Board and the commission again.
To alert residents, the town will include an item on the school’s requests in its winter newsletter.
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