As enrollment declines more, Broward prepares again for school closures
With another year of declining enrollment, Broward schools are restarting their efforts to close or repurpose schools with a large number of empty seats.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn plans to recommend at least five schools to close, more than his proposal in the spring to close three. Last time, he focused mainly on the Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood areas, but his latest plan could consider areas from the north, south, east and west.
The district has lost more than 25,000 students in the past decade and has at least 45,000 more seats than students. After the district received an A grade from the state this summer based on student achievement, Hepburn expressed optimism that many families may come back and fewer school closures may be needed.
However, that didn’t happen. Enrollment from Aug. 12, the first day of school, showed 200,240 at district-run schools, down 2,676 from last year. While that decline is smaller than in previous years, it still leaves the district with more empty seats.
Enrollment declines lead to reductions in state funding. An analysis in May said the district could save $1.8 million a year in operational costs for each elementary school it closes and $2.7 million for each middle school.
The School Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on policy changes related to the process of closing schools. Then Sept. 16 to 26, the district will hold a series of eight community meetings, which will be held to discuss the proposals and help the district whittle down a list of 44 schools. The changes would take effect in the 2025-26 school year.
District officials say the community input will be more robust than in the spring, when community members could only make brief comments about whether they supported or opposed certain schools being closed or changed.
“It will not be a town hall. We will not be sitting on the stage listening to people talking to a mike for a minute or two and not having open dialogue back and forth,” Hepburn told the School Board at a recent meeting. “It will be an engaging conversation.”
It will also be a tough conversation, board member Allen Zeman said.
“We’re going to do something that’s horrific to some small part of the community, to specific people who are influenced by these decisions,” Zeman said. “It is a traumatic experience, and that calls on us as a group to be very agile and thoughtful and analytic and to move forward in a way that allows them to feel heard through the process.”
District officials emphasized the 44 schools should not be considered a closure list, but a list of mostly low-enrolled schools that need attention. That may include new programs, consolidation, grade realignments, boundary changes or closure.
Some schools elementary schools could become K-8 schools, while some middle schools could switch to 6-12. The district may add gifted, dual language, visual and performing arts, science and technology, sports, college-level and career programs to some schools.
“It is not schools that the superintendent is saying are schools that need to be closed. It is not that at all,” district administrator Valerie Wanza told the School Board Aug. 27. “These are the communities that we are going to start to go have those in-depth intimate personal conversations with.”
The changes would affect elementary and middle schools, but not high schools. District officials say if they closed a high school, there would not be enough nearby capacity to absorb those students.
These elementary schools under consideration are:
Cluster 1: Coconut Creek Elementary, Charles Drew in Pompano Beach and Liberty in Margate.
Cluster 2: Broward Estates and Lauderhill Paul Turner in Lauderhill; and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Larkdale Elementary and Westwood Heights in Fort Lauderdale.
Cluster 3: Bennett, North Fork, North Side, Thurgood Marshall and Walker in Fort Lauderdale.
Cluster 4: Chapel Trail, Panther Run and Silver Palms in Pembroke Pines.
Cluster 5: Dolphin Bay, Silver Lakes, Silver Shores and Sunset Lakes elementary schools in Miramar.
Cluster 6: Coconut Palm and Coral Cove in Miramar; Palm Cove, Pasadena Lakes and Pines Lakes in Pembroke Pines.
Cluster 7: Miramar Elementary, Fairway and Sunshine in Miramar, Watkins in Pembroke Park.
Cluster 8: Collins, Hollywood Central and Mary M. Bethune in Hollywood.
Only three clusters will be considered for middle schools. They are:
Cluster 1: Plantation Middle as well as Bair and Westpine in Sunrise.
Cluster 2: Driftwood in Hollywood; Glades in Pembroke Pines, New Renaissance in Miramar, Pines and Walter C. Young in Pembroke Pines.
Cluster 3: Attucks and McNicol in Hollywood and Olsen in Dania Beach.
The list includes two of the three schools that were considered in May for possible closure: Broward Estates Elementary and Olsen Middle. Broward Estates’ enrollment declined slightly this year and now has 225 students. It’s 32% full, making it the the most underenrolled school in the district.
Olsen’s enrollment grew by 77 students to 635, but it’s still only 56% full.
Oakridge Elementary in Hollywood had also been considered for closure. Even though at 77% full, it didn’t meet the district’s definition of underenrolled, which is below 70%. It made the potential closure list due to academic achievement and the poor condition of its facilities. However, its grade rose from a D to a B and is no longer being considered for closure.
The new proposal is raising concern from some current and recently elected School Board members.
Board member Nora Rupert said there was a sense of relief last spring when no schools in her northern district were included. The north part of the county hasn’t experienced the same level of enrollment declines as the south.
“When I’m at an event and somebody asked me, ‘I heard in the board meeting that we’re going to be OK in Coconut Creek,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what the superintendent says,'” Rupert said. “So now, I’m going to have to say now the criteria is changing.”
“When people see that there’s a list of schools, it’s kind of very much feeling like you are being highlighted, and not in a good way,” she said.
Still, the majority of schools that could be targeted are in the south part of the county, which concerns Rebecca Thompson, who was recently elected to serve District 2, which includes the Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Southwest Ranches areas.
She said she won’t be on the board to have much influence until she takes office in November, which is the same time the School Board is expected to take a final vote.
“My main concern is not being involved in the process and not having an elected representative to voice concerns until basically it’s time to vote,” she said.
Torey Alston, who currently holds the seat, was appointed by the governor and doesn’t live in the district.
“I know there are financial issues we need to look at, but best-case scenario, I’d like them to consider not closing schools but revamping them in a way that better attracts parents,” she said. “I think closing schools should absolutely be the last option.”
The list of community meetings can be found at the district’s Redefining Our Schools website, browardschools.com/redefining.