A long-awaited project to restore one of Palm Beach County's first all-Black high schools broke ground on Thursday during an emotional ceremony that brought together school district leaders, elected officials, former teachers and alumni to the grounds of former Roosevelt High in West Palm Beach.
It was especially moving for Cora Studstill-Perry, a former teacher and alum who said the school — for the county's Black community — represented more than just a building with classrooms.
“Hallelujah. This was our home away from home,” said Studstill-Perry. "It was our home, a church, and the school — all of them came together."
She called Roosevelt High a source of pride and a pillar of the Black community at a time when the Jim Crow-era of racial segregation marginalized folks of color in Palm Beach and across the South.
Nearly seven decades after it first opened its doors, Roosevelt High is being redone at a cost of more than $50 million. It is being renamed the Historic Roosevelt Full Service Center and, when completed, will include new buildings and renovated spaces for adult education, a Black history museum and library. School district officials say they plan to preserve the school's historical facade that faces 15th and Tamarind Avenue. The school buildings have been vacant for more than a decade.
Studstill-Perry told WLRN that recreating the former high school will bring back what was a “beacon of the community."
She is part of the Industrial/Roosevelt High School National Alumni Association and Friends, who in the past two decades, led efforts to save the formerly all-Black Roosevelt High.
Alumni from the early 1960s joked around during Thursday's ceremony, bragging and debating over who had the best class.
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Studstill-Perry, who graduated from the school in 1965, recalled the push for academic excellence from administrators and teachers. She said teachers prepared Black students for life during Jim Crow — to succeed against all odds “so that the Black person that comes behind you can have a stepping ladder to reach up to.”
Some of the city's top Black professionals — engineers, lawyers, doctors, and educators attended the formerly all Black school from from 1950-1970.
It's also known for its 1967-68 basketball team, which went undefeated and won the 1968 state championship.
Dr. Debra Robinson, a former Palm Beach County school board member who helped spearhead the school preservation project, said the “[school district] closed Black high schools and then made many of them junior highs" following court-ordered racial integration of schools in the early 1960's.
“This facility had multiple programs over the years," said Robinson, who noted that a lack of funding over the years slowly led to the school's demise.
A long time coming
Robinson has led contentious town hall meetings about renovation plans since 2000.
“The district was not allocating any money,” said Robinson. “The district was in a period of really high student growth in other communities. And so trying to shift dollars for this project just wasn't happening.”
She said ultimately everyone came together to make sure promises were kept.
She refers to herself as a “servant of the community,” and told WLRN she will “probably sit on the ground and cry when the buildings are built and we dedicate [names] to the buildings.”
Building plans, cost
The community “watched their historic high school here kind of deteriorate right before their eyes,” said Mike Burke, Superintendent for Palm Beach County Schools. The school board unanimously approved $51 million in funding for the restoration and renovation work.
“We now have a good plan and we have the resources to make it happen," he said. "We're going to bring this campus back to its former glory.”
The first and second phases of the projects could take up to three years to complete, according to school district officials, who said the first phase will cost an estimated $21 million.
Jacob Katz, Senior Vice President of Pirtle Construction, which was awarded the contract for the first phase, told WLRN that renovation work is scheduled to be completed by summer 2025.
He expects major structural enhancements to bring the building up to code.
“It’s about uncovering what was done and what was built 40, 50, 60 years ago that you can't just see at eye level,” Katz said. “And you can't see it until you start doing some of the interior demolition.”
Developers are in the process of restoring the buildings in front of Tamarind Avenue. Its classic facade faces the road and has historical significance.
The goal is to create an historic African-American museum and library, but will need financial assistance from the city of West Palm Beach or the county to build the library, school district officials said.
The second phase of construction is slated to run about $30 million and is in the early stage of design.
David Dolan, Chief of Facilities Management at The School District of Palm Beach County, said developers are renovating the gymnasium back into a community space, “geared toward community spaces for meetings or for large testing for the adult education program that will be here.”
Educational Programming
The new campus is going to be a hub for Adult Education classrooms to teach career and technical education for both high school students and adults. It will include multi-purpose facilities for events and gatherings, and a building for lab spaces, say school district officials.
Fred Barch, Director of Adult and Community Education at The School District of Palm Beach County, told WLRN the county serves more than 180,000 students per year and said there is a demand for adult-education programs.
Said Barch: “We constantly look at job market data to see what the best programs fit our different facilities.”
He said the focus, at the moment, involves free programs like “pre-apprentice work and apprentice work, and could include programs that teach “welding, electrical, HVAC, carpentry, plumbing, those types of trades, and medical sciences.”
He said the standalone center plans to offer programs through a partnership with Palm Beach State college.
Edwin Ferguson, a Palm Beach County school board member, told WLRN that Thursday's groundbreaking was not just another school renovation project but that it represents the salvation of an entire community.
“This school symbolizes West Palm Beach, the Black communities in West Palm Beach,” Ferguson said. “So if you let this die in some ways, you let the Black community die."
