By Steve Plunkett
Town commissioners made Gulf Stream School’s newly raised 300-student limit a permanent one after twice postponing their decision so residents could come to Town Hall to give input.
The school won permission on Jan. 13 to raise the limit from 250 students to 300 but just for this school year — an approval that came after the school had already blown past the 250-student cap both this school year and last. Town commissioners held off on making the 300 number permanent in order to allow more residents to comment, promising to alert them to the proposal via newsletter.
But the next Gulf Stream newsletter omitted any mention of the school’s request, so commissioners decided on Feb. 10 to mail postcards telling residents they would discuss the student cap along with artificial turf and massing in the Core district at their March 10 meeting.
Only four people commented.
Jorgette Smith, who lives on Old School Road, was concerned about a document the school had prepared that suggested it could accommodate 320 children.
“I’m just scared we’re going to creep up to that the next thing you know,” she said.
But Dr. Gray Smith, head of the school, quickly reassured her that would not happen.
“That is the max number we could technically have in capacity on the campus,” Smith said. “We have no intention of going to 320. The reason is … we think we can achieve our mission at 300, and that’s the number that we want. Going beyond that would just jeopardize the mission.”
Barbara Sloan, who lives across the street from Town Hall, said, “The traffic is terrible.”
But Cuppy Kraft, a real estate agent who lives on Little Club Road, said, “It’s terrible everywhere” and that she was “very much in support” of the 300-student cap.
“I think it’s vital. The school is the jewel in the crown. And nobody’s going to the office anymore, nobody’s working five days a week. They’re all working from home. And these big new houses that have been permitted in Gulf Stream, they all house children. There may be a ramification down the road that we can’t sell those houses if we can’t keep attracting young families with children. I hope you get 320.”
Michael Tiernan, whose grandson attends the school, agreed with Kraft. “The reason my son is living in Gulf Stream is because of the school,” he said. “It is just kind of the heart of this community.”
The town also received a few emails, all in support of the higher enrollment figure, Assistant Town Manager Trey Nazzaro said.
Despite the 250-student cap, Gulf Stream School has 293 children enrolled this year. School officials say having 300 will generate a “modest” budget surplus.
Tuition at the K-8 school ranges form $23,105 a year for pre-K students to $32,765 a year for students in fifth through eighth grades.
Nazzaro gave a brief history of the school’s dealings with Town Hall, starting with the June 10, 1994, developer’s agreement that limited students to 250, and a 2013 amendment that required the school to certify its enrollment to the town each year.
But 2013 was also a year the town was struggling to process hundreds of public records requests and it did not ask for the certification.
Commissioner Joan Orthwein was concerned about who would monitor the enrollment certification in the future.
“I mean, no offense, but when you come in and say, ‘Oh gosh, we have 305 students,’ we’re not going to say five go home,” Orthwein said.
Nazzaro said Town Clerk Renee Basel already had the task on her calendar to check in October.
He also said the school, which does not pay property taxes, will pay the town $14,346 this year for police to help manage traffic, a requirement from a 2001 amendment to the agreement.
He will bring back to the commission a formal amendment to the agreement in April and start the procedure to have approved a small food service building planned for the school’s parking lot.
License-plate reading cameras approved
Commissioners briefly talked about how to deal with massing in the Core district and with artificial grass — but decided to have a full discussion in April.
They also approved a contract to install solar-powered license-plate reading cameras at Avenue Au Soleil, County Road, Sea Road, Lakeview Drive and Golfview Drive, with each having a camera where they meet State Road A1A, and on Banyan Road at Oleander Way because of Banyan’s tree canopy.
Nazzaro said the one-year agreement, which will cost $15,000 for the service — $2,500 per camera — plus $2,100 for installation, will “not be a pilot program but just an initial step.”
Mayor Scott Morgan asked if the town could paint the camera mounting poles green to match other signs in the town, and Lyndi Gurevitch of the Atlanta-based vendor Flock Group Inc., said, “It’s kind of like, don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“You guys can paint the poles if you want to. Just obviously stay away from the camera. You don’t want to … get any paint on the actual camera.”
But commissioners decided to stick with the black poles Flock delivers to avoid the possibility of paint peeling later. The security cameras will be installed six weeks after permits are approved, Gurevitch said.
Neighborhoods such as Hidden Harbour that have private roads will be able to opt in to the LPR system by paying the same installation and service fees for a camera that the town would be charged.
Dogs and golf carts
At the start of the meeting, Morgan said the commission would not consider an ordinance proposed by a resident to prohibit other residents from towing, walking or otherwise exercising pets while driving a golf cart.
“This is an ordinance that addressed the behavior of one individual, that is, one resident in our town. Gulf Stream is the type of town — we are a neighborhood, we are a neighborly town, and it just struck me that rather than immediately legislating from the dais, we are a neighborhood who should try to work things out amicably if possible.”
The resident, whom he did not name, has exercised her dog while riding in her golf cart for 20 years, Morgan said. “However, our town has changed. We have more people, we have younger people and maybe that’s the demographic reason, but we have more dogs.”
Police told him that about 25 dogs are out for walks in town from 7 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m., “and when a golf cart comes up to them at a rate of speed with the dog running beside it, it can be frightening, disturbing and exciting to some of the dogs.”
The woman, who is an early riser, has agreed to exercise her pet before the 7 to 9 a.m. crunch to avoid confrontations.
“I’m hopeful we can resolve this issue like neighbors,” Morgan said.
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