St. Edward’s is still the school where most island parents want their children to be educated, but a growing number of private schools on the mainland now provide competition.
Case in point, the county Planning and Zoning Commission has approved phase 1 of a site plan for construction of a new K-12 classical school campus along the up-and-coming Oslo Road Corridor.
The campus will be the new home of Vero Classical School, which opened in 2023 for students in grades K-5, and added sixth grade in 2025. When phase 1 of the new campus is finished in 2028, the school will add additional grades, eventually serving around 1,200 K-12 students when all three construction phases are complete.
If the plan receives final approval from the County Commission, this will be the fourth private K-12 school in Indian River County, alongside St. Edward’s School, Master’s Academy and Glendale Christian School.
The county also is home to numerous private schools that enroll K-8 students or other grade levels. Those schools include St. Helen Catholic School (K-8), The Willow School (K-8), SunCoast School (K-8), Tabernacle Baptist School (K-8), Anderson Academy (8-12), Touched by Grace Academy (Grades 4-12) and Crosstyle Academy (K-10).
Vero Classical School wants to build an impressive modern campus with an arts center, library, gymnasium, sports fields and stadium along with classrooms and laboratories on a 53-acre parcel on 58th Avenue just south of Oslo Road.
County commissioners voted in May 2025 to expand the county’s urban services boundary along a four-mile stretch of Oslo Road, including this site. A $96 million project to construct an interchange at Oslo and I-95 is slated for completion in 2027. The project includes widening Oslo Road west of 58th Avenue to handle additional traffic.
These improvements, which increase the availability of county water and sewer services, are attracting new commercial and residential development to the area. Four subdivisions are under construction near the proposed school site, with numerous others in the planning stages nearby, as Vero’s version of urban sprawl spreads out over cattle pastures and woodlands.
The campus location puts the school in the crosshairs of conflict between advocates of growth and residents who opposed expanding the urban services boundary, wary of overdevelopment and fearful of losing the area’s peaceful rural atmosphere.
Vero Beach Classical School purchased the agricultural property for $3.2 million from the Ruth Collier Williams Trust and D&K Hill Family Limited Partnership on Aug. 6, 2024.
Phase 1, estimated to cost $25 million, includes constructing an 18,957-square-foot administration building, a 15,748-square-foot building for a library and auxiliary gym, a playground and practice field, a parent drop-off area and employee parking lot with 90 spaces, a student and guest parking lot with 457 spaces, and two water management ponds.
Future phases will include 24,270 square feet of classroom and lab space, a 34,191-square-foot gymnasium, a 29,417-square-foot art center, a combination football stadium and track and field facility with parking for 570 vehicles, six tennis courts, a baseball field, softball field and practice field.
The school will operate from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, with stadium and other sports events in the evening. The site will be served by county water and sewer services.
A 20-foot landscape buffer will be erected around the perimeter of the site as part of phase 1, according to the plan. Five-foot-wide sidewalks will be installed along 58th Avenue SW and 13th Street SW.
A southbound right turn lane will be added on 58th Avenue SW and a westbound turning lane will be added on 13th Street SW.
Traffic circulation plans for the project have been approved by the county’s traffic engineering division and fire prevention bureau.
The proposed school site, which is surrounded by pastureland, is currently zoned A-1 agricultural, which allows for development of a school with a special exception under the zoning designation.
County P&Z voted unanimously on March 26 to approve phase 1 of the school’s plan and recommended that county commissioners approve the special exception use of the property.
A public hearing for the special exception request was supposed to occur at the April 6 county commission meeting but was postponed that morning after several neighboring residents said they were not sufficiently notified of the date for the public hearing.
Commissioners are expected to consider the school’s request and approve or deny the special exception this week.
