Broward County schools set to reopen Friday

Broward County Public Schools will reopen from flooding Friday, dashing the hopes for students who thought they might get a week-and-a-half Thanksgiving break.

Schools will be closed all next week for the holiday, the school district faced an unexpected closure Thursday due to heavy rains and flooding throughout the county.

“We know it’s real convenient for them to stay home, but we want them back, and we need them back,” Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata said in a news conference on Thursday.

Flooding remained a problem in some schools throughout Thursday, but Licata said he’s hopeful most issues should be resolved by Friday. Parent pickup and drop-off areas and bus loops at all schools are clear, he said.

“We are expected to be 100% fully open, and if there is any individual cases, we’re handling individually with schools,” he said. “We’ve got some damages, but nothing significant that we can’t fix in 24 hours.”

Licata named some schools that were still a concern on Thursday.

  • Markham Elementary in Pompano Beach had a flooded cafeteria. The district is asking a contractor to pump the water out, and there is a backup plan if students can’t use the cafeteria area, Licata said.

  • Pompano Beach Middle has flooding and trees down.

  • The staff parking lot at Northeast High in Oakland Park has flooding.

  • Northside Elementary in Fort Lauderdale has some reported flooded.

  • Piper High in Sunrise has a flooded parking lot.

  • Western High in Davie had some rain inside its auditorium and fields.

  • A few schools in the Deerfield Beach area had power issues, which Licata expected to be resolved Thursday.

The district has not decided if or when to make up the missed day. It has four possible makeup days designed for hurricanes.

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The school district alerted the public at 9:55 p.m. Wednesday that schools would be closed Thursday, leading to some criticism on social media that the district didn’t give families enough notice.

Licata said the district realized by 9:15 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. that the conditions were serious enough to close.

“We would have had a lot of children on the road at 6 a.m., and if you were on the roads at 6 a.m., which I was, you know there were some howling winds and a lot of flooding,” Licata said. “I wasn’t comfortable with our buses trying to pick students up.”

This is the second time in 2023 the district has closed due to flooding, the last time being in April, when the district closed for two days after torrential rains caused an estimated $8 million in damage to county schools. Most of the times when the district closes schools due to weather, it’s because of a hurricane.

The district has historically decided to open or close all county schools due to weather issues, rather than close only those with problems.

“We know some areas don’t flood but a lot of them do,” Licata said. “When we make a decision, it impacts everyone and it’s going to be an equitable decision.”

This week’s storm also led to several college campus closures in Broward. Florida Atlantic University closed its three Broward campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Davie and Dania Beach on Thursday. Broward College, which also houses the school district’s College Academy high school, closed its campuses Wednesday and Thursday. Broward College faced major flooding on its central campus in Davie.

Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic campus in Dania Beach has been closed since Tuesday afternoon, but the main campus in Davie remained open.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, none of the colleges have announced plans for Friday.