The closure of Lincoln Elementary in Riviera Beach at the end of this school year would be only the second time the Palm Beach County School District has shut down a traditional public school in more than 30 years.
School board members voted to shut down a half-empty Odyssey Middle west of Boynton Beach after the 2017-18 school year, and reports at the time indicated that closure was the first in a quarter century.
But while Odyssey’s demise generated sadness, Lincoln’s possible closure is linked to the decades-old hope for a new high school in Riviera Beach. A district advisory committee advanced a plan in December that would disperse Lincoln’s roughly 380 students to Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary and West Riviera Elementary. Lincoln would be renovated and, starting with the 2028-29 school year, would be the new home for Inlet Grove High students…