Barron Trump may enroll at Fort Lauderdale’s most elite high school after his father’s presidency ends
Barron Trump, the 14-year-old son of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, may enroll at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale after his father’s presidency ends on Jan. 20.
The possibility was raised by the New York Post’s gossip site Page Six, which reported on Sunday that Melania Trump recently toured the school. It attributed the information to a single unidentified source.
A school spokeswoman declined to comment. “Pine Crest School does not disclose personal family information related to any stage of our Admission process, including the identity of families who inquire, apply, or enroll,” she said via email.
The first lady’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump hasn’t acknowledged he is leaving the presidency. But after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, the president and first lady are widely expected to set up residence at Trump’s beloved Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Last year, angered by his home state of New York, he declared himself a permanent resident of Florida and used Mar-a-Lago as his voting address in the March presidential primary, the August state and local primary, and the November general election.
Pine Crest is an expensive and elite institution, and children of many of South Florida’s elites in the business and legal communities go to school at its Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton campuses. Many of its graduates go to the nation’s top universities.
Pine Crest graduates include the late entrepreneur H. Wayne Huizenga, who became the only U.S. businessman to found three Fortune 500 companies. Also attending were actor Kelsey Grammar, best known for playing the TV character Frasier Crane; Bethenny Frankel, a reality TV celebrity; and NBA player Brandon Knight.
Another alum is Mark Gilbert, who played baseball at Pine Crest, went onto become a professional ballplayer and investment banker. He was former President Barack Obama’s ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
The 2020 Jay Mathews Challenge Index ranked Pine Crest as the No. 1 private school in the country and in the top 30 schools in the country. And Newsweek put Pine Crest on its list of top schools for STEM — science, technology, engineering and math.
The website describes Pine Crest as “a community of solutionaires. We approach challenges with curiosity, creativity, and confidence.”
It isn’t cheap. High school tuition is $35,150 a year. Lower grades are less expensive, starting at $23,960 a year for kindergarten.
That doesn’t include other required expenses, such as school uniforms and laptops.
The school’s website acknowledges that a “A Pine Crest education will always be a significant financial commitment for a family,” adding, “We do our best to keep tuition low.”
Pine Crest also has a Boca Raton campus, which educates students through eighth grade. The Fort Lauderdale campus includes lower grades and high school.
