Broward may close some schools — and open new ones

By Scott Travis

The Broward school district plans to reopen a longstanding debate about closing schools, but with a possible new twist — opening new schools as well.

The school district has about 45,000 empty seats, due to years of enrollment declines. Some schools are only a third or half full. That has led to many discussions but few decisions in recent years about closing schools.

Recently, Superintendent Howard Hepburn told the School Board he plans to identify clusters of schools with low enrollment and poor facilities that could be targeted for closure. But instead of sending the kids to another dated school, as has been suggested in the past, Hepburn said the idea now is to build a new school on the site of an old campus that will serve students from several closed schools.

“You would consolidate the kids out of the old school into a brand new state-of-the-art facility to meet their needs, to provide innovative learning opportunities,” Hepburn told the School Board at a May 20 workshop. “Our money would be spent wisely on building a replacement school versus spending a bunch of money on renovating old facilities that you will constantly have to update over the years.”

The idea of consolidating schools into a new facility is one of several proposals Hepburn is considering for the next phase of the district’s “Redefining Broward County Public Schools” effort. Other proposals include revamping magnet programs, consolidating bus routes, using schools for administrative space and selling vacant land.

Several board members said they are open to the school consolidation idea.

“It’s important for the stakeholders to know they’re going to get something better,” Board member Maura Bulman said at the May 20 meeting. “So if I’m losing my school down the street, I better be hearing that the school that my child’s going to be going to is better, offering more, having a better facility, and giving my kid better opportunities.”

Whether the district would have the money to build multiple new schools remains to be seen. District officials have estimated they could save about $1 million in annual costs for each elementary school they close, $2.5 million for each middle school and $3 million for each high school. But the cost of building new schools can range from $50 million to more than $100 million, based on recent contracts and estimates in South Florida school districts.

The district has years of deferred maintenance on its schools, many of which are more than 50 years old. Voters approved an $800 million bond in 2014 to help address these needs, but it’s been riddled with problems.

The bond only covered about a third of the district’s needs at the time. And more than a decade later, nearly half of the projects are still not complete and the projects are hundreds of millions over budget, according to a March report of the district’s Bond Oversight Committee. Some may never be finished, as the district considers whether to keep the schools.

Board members have discussed asking the public for another bond referendum in the future for school construction, although it’s unclear how soon that might be.

The district has hired a consultant to conduct a facilities condition assessment to determine what kinds of needs each school has and whether it makes sense to spend more money to renovate them. That work is still ongoing, officials said.

The School Board started its efforts to redefine schools in 2023, with direction to a previous superintendent to close or overhaul at least five schools for the 2025-26 school year. The School Board agreed earlier this year to change the grade levels of several schools, converting several elementary schools into K-8 schools, for example.

But the board has been reluctant to close schools, which often creates public backlash. For the 2024-25 school year, the only school that will actually close as a K-12 facility will be Broward Estates Elementary in Lauderhill, which is becoming an early learning center.

Board member Allen Zeman, who serves a countywide district, has been the most ardent supporter of closing schools, saying it can create savings to provide teachers’ raises and improve education for all students.

But board members who serve geographic areas have been hesitant to close schools in their region, and it’s become a political issue at election time. They’ve supported efforts to try to lure students back from charter and private schools, but so far, there’s little evidence those efforts are making a major impact.

Zeman introduced a new proposal to close 11 schools a year for three years. Even with the 33 closures, schools would still operate at about 90% of their capacity, giving them room to grow, Zeman said.

He suggested letting Hepburn decide which schools those should be, since “he has no dog in the fight.”

School Board member Lori Alhadeff said if School Board members agree to that, they can’t back down later.

“If we do ask our superintendent to give us those answers, we as a board have to then support him,” Alhadeff said.

https://pineapplereport.com/broward-may-close-some-schools-and-open-new-ones/