Imagine Schools, a charter-school program, is the largest national alternative to public schools with 3,500 teachers, 73 schools and more than 37,000 students.
The program just made the first step to becoming even bigger by breaking ground Nov. 9 on a new building at 3333 High Ridge Road.
The new site for a 54,000 square-foot school will house the Imagine Schools-Chancellor Campus, formerly of Lantana, and will be open by August.
Chancellor Principal Laura Mardyks said there was a long waiting list to get into the Lantana school for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and that the new school will almost double capacity. It will also add middle school grades sixth, seventh and eighth with the new space.
The old building at 600 S. East Coast Ave. could max out at 600 students, while the new building in Boynton Beach will have the ability to have almost 1,000, Mardyks said.
“Parents have been asking for us to expand since 2007,” she said.
Imagine Schools-Chancellor Campus opened in 2001. In 2008-09 it was again an A-rated school.
Mardyks said the success comes from the creativity of the founders. Dennis and Eileen Bakke founded Imagine Schools with the intent on making them decentralized.
“Everything is bottom up and leadership driven,” Mardyks said.
Charter means contract but Dennis Bakke opened the schools with the intent on giving parents an alternative.
Mardyks said it would be a bittersweet move into the new building, leaving what she calls a “charming” place after eight years.
“It is a place for technology-infused learning,” she said. “This building used to be the bunker for the old township of Lantana.”
For information, call 561-585-1189.
Read more about this story in the Nov. 18 issue of the Boynton Forum.
Mike Rothman can be reached at mkrothman@tribune.com.