A school long considered part of the Wellington community is now officially part of the village.

The Village Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to annex Panther Run Elementary School on Lake Worth Road into the village boundaries.

The council had given initial approval to the annexation at its Jan. 10 meeting, and the School Board and district granted approval last year.

“The property has always been considered a Wellington community school, but it’s actually the only one that’s not physically within the boundaries of Wellington, so this application is to bring it home and make it totally a part of the Wellington school system,” said Bob Basehart, Wellington’s sustainability and regulatory affairs director.

The 20-acre property was deeded to Palm Beach County in 1987 for use as a school, as a requirement of approval for the Wycliffe development. The county deeded the land to the school board in 1990, and Panther Run was built in 1991, Basehart said. Wellington didn’t incorporate until 1996.

Eighty percent of the students at Panther Run are Wellington residents, Basehart said, “so it truly is a community school.” The school is one of 11 that receive the annual Keely Spinelli grant from the village.

In addition to the vote in favor of annexation, the council also gave initial approval to:

• An application to add the property to Wellington’s Future Land Use Map (FLUM) as CF (Community Facilities), which is the appropriate designation for schools in Wellington’s Comprehensive Plan, from the county’s LR-2 FLUM designation.
• An application to rezone the property from the county’s AR (Agricultural Residential) to CF (Community Facilities) on Wellington’s zoning map.

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