The long running battle to get a relief high school built in West Orange was given the nod Tuesday, when the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a special exception. Orange County Public Schools will now be able to move forward with a school to relieve overcrowding at West Orange High School. The high school will be built on County Road 535 where it meets Ficquette Road. The land is just inside the West Windermere Rural Settlement.
The district agreed to spend $2.5 million on architectural upgrades for the school, erect a decorative fence along 535 and an eight-foot wall along the property border with residents. In addition, the district agreed to put more trees between homes and the school. Most significantly, the district agreed to move a lighted football stadium off-site.
On Tuesday, the commissioners imposed several additional conditions: ending band practice at 8 p.m., forbidding bleachers at the school’s practice fields, limiting signage and restricting the area where the school can place portable classrooms to a field behind a group of academic buildings.
After the commissioners’ unanimous decision Tuesday, School Board Member Pam Gould let out a big sigh of relief.
“My hope is we can bring the community back together around this school. At the end of the day, we’ll be able to provide a wonderful school in a wonderful community.”
Plans to build the new school met with much controversy between the county and school district. Moreover, there were concerns that the new school would lead to an increase in traffic congestion and noise in the area. And while parents pushed for the new school, many residents were opposed to the building a new school.
“They’ve been willing to compromise,” Jane Benner, who expects her oldest child to attend the new high school when it opens in 2017, said of the School Board. “They’ve bent over backwards to accommodate everyone without losing sight that this school is needed for the children in the area.”
