Bok North Gets OK to Double Enrollment with 7th Graders at First Pres

The Polk County School Board Tuesday May 14 approved enrollment increases for Victory Ridge Academy and Bok Academy North for the 2019-20 school year and to hold the capacity at 1,650 for Lake Wales High School.

Bok Academy North got approval to increase enrollment from 200 to 400, so they can roll up their 6th graders and serve grades six and seven for the next school year. Bok North presented a plan to house 200 seventh grade students at First Presbyterian Church in addition to 200 sixth graders at First Baptist Church, where they have operated this school year.

Lake Wales High School requested the ability to increase their capacity by 30 to 1,680, but the school board voted to keep them at this year’s level of 1,650 because the school in March 2019 had only 1,587 students, 83 below the approved capacity.

Victory Ridge got approval to enroll an extra 15 students for the next school year, for an enrollment capacity of 275.

The charter schools are public schools operated under separate governing bodies, but they must get Polk County School Board approval for their enrollments each year.

This was the first school year for Bok Academy North. Bok Academy Principal Damien Moses has served as principal of both campuses, but the Lake Wales Charter School system recently announced that Donna Drisdom, current principal of McLaughlin Middle School and Fine Arts Academy, has been appointed to serve as principal for Bok North for the upcoming school year.