For newly relocated New England families, Palm Beach County private schools aren’t just appealing for their academics. They’re also discounted.
The COVID pandemic fueled a historic migration of wealth to Palm Beach County. It’s an influx of money that is transforming the style, landscape, and fortunes of our area, with some communities more and more resembling the tony town of Palm Beach. The changes will be permanent, and could prove a boon for some while deepening the affordability crunch, traffic frustrations and even school waiting lists for others. This is one part of a Palm Beach Post multi-part series titled The Palm Beaching Project.
Cooper Knowland was just a week old when his parents started calling around to get him into a private school in Palm Beach County.
His parents, who lived together in New York City for 10 years before moving to Atlanta and then to South Florida, knew to start early when it came to getting their son a private education once he was ready to start Pre-K.
“We have tons of friends of our same age in New York, and the way it works there is as soon as you get that positive pregnancy test, you need to start having those conversations,” Alex Knowland said about looking for private schools with his wife, Shan You. “We took that approach down here, and it paid positive dividends.”
Urges like Knowlands’ appear to be getting more common: More than a dozen babies who have not been born are on the waitlist at American Heritage School in Delray Beach, according to school leaders.
Booming private school demand emerged during the pandemic years as more than 700,000 people moved to Florida. For those who left behind New England private schools with tuition more than double the costs in Palm Beach County, South Florida’s private schools aren’t just appealing for their academics or sports. They’re also cheaper.
“We’ve seen huge migrations of people from New York and California,” said Doug Laurie, president of American Heritage Schools. “They look at our tuition, and they ask, ‘What’s the catch?'”
Private schools in Palm Beach County such as American Heritage School, Oxbridge Academy, Saint Andrew’s School and Pine Crest will charge between $32,000 and $44,800 per student next school year. That falls about $20,000 short of the tuition for private schools such as New York City’s Dalton Academy or Trinity School and Boston’s Milton Academy or Buckingham Browne & Nichols School.
Perhaps as a result, private school leaders said their waitlists are the longest they’ve ever been. A student added to American Heritage’s list today will have to wait about two years to be admitted.
For those expecting parents and families like the Knowlands, it made sense to add their child to the list before they even take their first steps so they can start Pre-K at a private school with other 3-year-olds in 2027.
To bring business to Palm Beach County, economic leaders focus on private schools
In order to entice executives and their companies to South Florida, Palm Beach County economic leaders are focusing on getting them comfortable with the private school scene.
Last year, the Business Development Board hosted an event for New York City executives to meet with 17 private school representatives at The Yale Club in Manhattan. The event spurred personalized tours of schools in Palm Beach County, and school leaders walked attendees through what it would look like to relocate their children 1,200 miles south into a new school.
Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the board, said the concierge-like service made all the difference for business leaders.
“If the executive can get their kids in a school they like, we’re going to stand a better chance of landing that headquarters or executive in Palm Beach County,” she said. “I’ve never lost a CEO’s business in Palm Beach County if they give me the opportunity to show them the schools.”
Knowland, a principal investment professional at Comvest Partners in West Palm Beach, said he learned about the education scene in Palm Beach County quickly because of the Business Development Board’s outreach.
He took private and customized tours of schools earlier than other families could have and established relationships with private school headmasters so they know where they’ll want to apply down the road.
“We needed an education about the education options,” Knowland said. “So this made all the sense in the world.”
The family hasn’t decided where Cooper will attend primary school yet, but they know he’ll attend Get Ready, Set, Grow Academy in Delray Beach this fall as a 1-year-old.
As the Business Development Board opens the door for new executives, private schools are trying to step up and welcome new families on the other side.
And there are a lot of new folks knocking.
“Since COVID down here, it’s been explosive with new families applying,” said Alex Tolischus, director of enrollment management at Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton. She said the number of inquiries has increased by about 25% each year.
The school’s waitlist remains a couple hundred students long, and there’s been a sharp uptick in interest in the school’s boarding program, which mirrors that of an Episcopal New England boarding school. About 17% of Saint Andrew’s ninth through 12th grade students live on campus full time.
“Independent schools have a big presence up in New England, and that is what Saint Andrew’s is replicating down here,” Tolischus said.
Growing enrollment, growing footprint: Private schools build new campuses
Meanwhile, some private schools are breaking ground to keep up with demand.
Palm Beach and Treasure Coast Christian Academies plan to add 16 campuses to its four-campus school system in the next five years, according to Superintendent Jay Boggess. The schools will be built at existing Family Church locations in both counties.
“We’re trying to meet the demand. There are people moving from the Northeast, and most of those people went to private school, not an NYC borough school,” he said. “We’re seeing this revival and resurrection of the private school model and the micro-school model (in Florida). The challenging portion is there aren’t enough private schools out there. The ones that are out there are already filled.”
School footprints, particularly in downtown West Palm Beach, also appear to be expanding.
In May, Rosarian Academy announced it had purchased an entire city block between 7th and 8th Streets to build 10 classrooms and playgrounds for up to 100 more students.
“Enrollment at Rosarian Academy is at an all-time high, especially for early childhood,” according to an announcement by the school’s Marketing Director Will Searcy. “With the new classrooms, Rosarian anticipates increasing enrollment to 480 students with a capacity to grow to 500.”
But some private schools don’t expect the current boom in enrollment to last forever.
“You don’t want to be in the position where you have to shrink in the future,” said Tolischus, director of enrollment at Saint Andrew’s. “What happens if the pipeline isn’t there? What happens if people stop moving here?”
Source: Wealth migration to Florida brought private school surge. The result? Years-long waitlists
