Broward County Public Schools present two plans for school closings: Close 3 or 42?
For the first time since they started the process in February, Broward County Public Schools staff shared with the community two specific plans on Monday to address the critical decline in student enrollment: one that would close three schools and another that would close 42.
The first plan, which Superintendent Howard Hepburn recommended, would affect 30 schools, three of which would close.
Those three would be Oakridge Elementary in Hollywood, Broward Estates Elementary in Lauderhill and Olsen Middle School in Dania Beach.
Olsen and Broward Estates are both underenrolled. Olsen has about 500 students enrolled, but a capacity for 1,100. Broward Estates has about 250 students, but a capacity for about 700. Oakridge isn’t underenrolled, but the facilities were built before 1960 and the school is currently graded a D by the state.
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The other 27 schools impacted under Hepburn’s plan would involve boundary changes, public-private partnerships, repurposings, and program and grade reconfigurations.
The second plan to fix the underenrollment issue in the county — a much more aggressive one — would involve downsizing the district to only have seats for students currently enrolled. Alan Strauss, the school district’s task-assigned chief strategy and innovation officer, called it a “mathematical exercise.”
The second plan would close 42 schools and redraw all school boundaries. The 42 schools would include 32 elementary, eight middle and two high schools. District staff didn’t name them.
The second plan would fix the nearly 54,000 empty seats in the district, but would likely eliminate all magnet programs, school choice and reassignments because every school would be operating at capacity. It could also lead to more students leaving the school district, Strauss said.
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School district seeks feedback on two plans
The district will hold six more town hall meetings to discuss the plans in the upcoming two weeks:
at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 at J.P. Taravella High School, 10600 Riverside Dr., Coral Springs, FL 33071
at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 1 at Dillard High School, 2501 NW 11th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311
at 6 p.m. Monday, May 6 at Fort Lauderdale High School, 1600 NE 4th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33305
at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 7 at Flanagan High School, 12800 Taft St., Pembroke Pines, FL 33028
at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 8 at Western High School, 1200 SW 136th Ave., Davie, FL 33325
at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 9 at Deerfield Beach High School, 910 Buck Pride Way, Deerfield Beach, FL 33441
After they wrap up the presentation at each town hall, attendees can comment on the ideas in person or by filling out an online survey answering questions like, “Do you prefer the superintendent’s considerations or total district realignment?”
Survey answers will be available to the public after all of the town hall meetings next Friday, said John Sullivan, a district spokesperson.“These are considerations, and your feedback is very, very, very important,” Hepburn told community members on Monday. “Feedback is truly a gift when addressing complex challenges.”
Hepburn will present a final recommended plan to the Broward School Board during a workshop on May 14. The board will vote on a final plan on June 18.
The district would implement the changes in the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.
Mostly parents, teachers and other adults spoke Monday.
Alana Borrero, an eleventh grader at Hollywood Hills High — where Monday’s meeting took place, asked the board and district to push for more students to attend the upcoming town halls.
“Hopefully students will see these as opportunities to speak their minds,” said Borrero, who was elected as a student advisor to the School Board in the upcoming 2025-2026 school year.
“Students can really give their unique perspectives on what’s really happening in these schools,” the 17-year-old added.
The only other student to speak Monday was Skylar Van Naarden, 8. The third grader at Sheridan Hills Elementary in Hollywood asked the district to “increase the time of recess.”
What other schools are affected by the first plan?
Here’s what Superintendent Hepburn’s recommendation would entail:
Pines Middle in Pembroke Pines could transform from a traditional 6-8 middle school to a 6-12 school. The district could replicate the Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy in Tamarac, formerly known as Millenium Middle School, which Strauss said U.S. News & World Reports ranked as the No. 2 high school in Florida last week.
Silver Shores Elementary in Miramar could evolve from a K-5 boundary elementary school into a K-8 full choice school, the latter meaning any parent could apply to enroll their kid there. Strauss said this could help families who commute using I-75.
Most students assigned to Silver Shores would move to Silver Lakes Elementary in Miramar and some to Silver Palms Elementary in Pembroke Pines.
The two Exceptional Student Learning Support preschool programs for students with disabilities at Silver Shores could relocate to Panther Run Elementary in Pembroke Pines.
Hollywood Central Elementary in Hollywood could turn into a K-8 school. Strauss said the community asked for that years ago but the district never implemented it.
Olsen Middle could close and its campus could become school district administrative offices. Olsen students could go to Attucks Middle, Hollywood Central Elementary (turned K-8) and McNicol Middle — all in Hollywood, Strauss said.
Oakridge Elementary could close and its campus could become affordable housing for the district’s workforce, Hepburn said.
Oakridge neighboring schools — Mary M. Bethune Elementary and Stirling Elementary, Hollywood Hills Elementary and Colbert Elementary in Hollywood, as well as Collins Elementary in Dania Beach — would need boundary changes to absorb Oakridge students and to better divide the zoning so families don’t have to commute as much, Strauss said.
Broward Estates Elementary could close and its campus could become an early learning center that could mirror Gulfstream Early Learning Center in Hallandale Beach, Strauss said.
Sunland Park Academy used to be a poor-performing school, so the district staff changed it back then from a K-5 elementary school to a K-3 academy. Since, the school “has been doing well,” Strauss said, so they want to turn it back into a K-5 school.
Neighboring schools to Sunland and Broward Estates — Thurgood Marshall Elementary and Westwood Heights Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, as well as Plantation Elementary in Plantation — would need boundary changes.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Montessori Academy in Lauderhill would change to a regular school instead of a Montessori. Strauss said that because it’s a boundary school, the Montessori aspect of it may not be attractive to some families assigned to it.
Virginia Shuman Young Montessori in Fort Lauderdale would turn into a regular, boundary elementary school instead of a Montessori, full choice one. Strauss said this could help open up seats for families moving into that area and looking for a local school.
North Fork Elementary in Fort Lauderdale would switch from a boundary school into a full choice “commuter” school, meaning it wouldn’t offer transportation but families who use I-95 to commute could use it.
The Montessori program in that area would move to Bennett Elementary in Fort Lauderdale. Bennett is located by Sunrise Middle School, which is already a Montessori middle school, so the transition would let the district offer a K-8 Montessori option in the north side of the county.
The changes in the northern area would also require boundary changes at Harbordale Elementary, Walker Elementary and North Side Elementary — all in Fort Lauderdale.
Quiet Waters Elementary, Deerfield Beach Elementary and Tedder Elementary, all in Deerfield Beach, would be impacted through public-private partnerships. Hepburn mentioned a historic building at Deerfield Beach that could be refurbished and used by working with a private school. He didn’t mention specifics for Quiet Waters or Tedder.
Concerns with fairness about superintendent’s plan
To draft their recommended plan, Hepburn and the school district staff considered factors like the latest student enrollment numbers at the schools, the schools’ historical significance, the schools’ performance, and whether the school facilities were built before 1960, according to Monday’s presentation.
Strauss also said on Monday that they picked the southern part of the county because it’s “charter-heavy” and traditional public schools there face great competition.
Still, some in the audience raised concerns on Monday that District 1 was being unfairly targeted because two schools would close there, especially Board member Daniel Foganholi, from District 1.
He said he asked the school district to include the information on how many schools would need to close to catch up with the enrollment downfall. He thinks more than three schools need to close to fix the district’s financial problems even though 42 is a “scary number to look at.”
And he wants those schools to close across the county, not just in the southern part of the county.
“I want to make sure this is done equitably,” he said. “If this is a Broward problem, then we need a Broward solution, not a Dania Beach solution or a Hollywood solution.”
Community members from Oakridge and Olsen also raised concerns about their schools closing.
Julie Burger-Shannon, the ESE specialist at Oakridge, said the school shouldn’t close because of its historical significance. “Oakridge has a neighborhood legacy,” she said.
Terry Lopez Preuss, who was a PE teacher for about 16 years at Olsen who retired in 2016, said it’s unfair that the district wants to close Olsen, because the community has been complaining about issues with high teacher turnover and poor management there for years and the district staff ignored them.
“I’m outraged,” she said. “I gave my life to that school and to see it destroyed ... it’s ridiculous.”
