The list of potential schools in Broward County that could face closure has gotten smaller, with most concentrated in the southern half of the county.
At least five schools are expected to be recommended to the School Board on June 18 for closure or an overhaul during the 2025-26 school year. Other schools may be affected because they would be housing those students, Superintendent Howard Hepburn told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The School Board will make the final decision.
Proposals with specific school names are expected to be released Monday when newly appointed Hepburn holds the first in a series of seven town halls throughout the county. The first one will be at 6 p.m. Monday at Hollywood Hills High.
Although district officials have yet to release any proposals with names of specific schools on it, they have released maps, data and criteria that give hints about the focus of their plan. The areas are mainly in the Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Pembroke Pines areas.
Among those that could be considered for changes or closure are Broward Estates Elementary in Lauderhill; Bennett Elementary and North Fork Elementary in Fort Lauderdale; Pines Middle in Pembroke Pines and Olsen Middle in Dania Beach. District spokesman John Sullivan would not confirm any school names.
It’s far from certain the School Board will approve the recommended plan. Several School Board members have been critical of the data released, saying it either doesn’t go far enough to address the dearth of students in the district or it focused too much on certain communities.
While some schools could be closed, others could be converted from an elementary into a K-8 or from a school with boundaries to one where students apply to get in. Some schools also could get new programs to try to attract more students. School officials also have talked about partnering with the city of Pembroke Pines, which runs a successful charter school system.
“This is not just about school closures, but about creating better opportunities because we are in a competitive market,” Hepburn told the Sun Sentinel. “We have some areas around this district that have a plethora of students that are not attending our schools. So it’s going to cause us to be more competitive and offer better options so we can actually regain those students and make them understand that we are their best choice.”
The district has 54,100 empty seats. Enrollment is expected to decline by another 4,300 students this fall, largely due to a spike in vouchers for private schools, officials said. Enrollment in the Hollywood and Pembroke Pines area has plummeted over the past 25 years due to the explosion of charter schools in those areas.
In February, the district released a list of 67 schools considered underenrolled. They had student populations that were less than 70% of their capacity. This list includes schools from most parts of the county and was the starting point for the discussion. The district then held three town halls to get feedback from parents, students and county residents.
The district’s latest proposal has eliminated large portions of the county. Places such as Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, Parkland, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Sunrise, Davie, Weston and Cooper City would largely be spared.
These changes alone reduce the number of possible schools facing closure to 36. But another district document, obtained by the Sun Sentinel through a public records request, provides even more clues.
The document rates every school in the district on factors that make it a target for being closed or repurposed. This includes being severely underenrolled — enrollment that’s 55% or below of capacity — as well as age of a facility, academic performance, available capacity at nearby schools and historical significance of the campus.
Two schools in the affected zones meet every criteria identified for closure or repurposing: Broward Estates Elementary and Bennett Elementary. They have old facilities, struggling student performance, available space elsewhere and no historical significance, according to a district analysis.
Several schools score poorly in every category except for age of facilities, including Pines Middle in Pembroke Pines, Olsen Middle in Dania Beach and North Fork Elementary in Fort Lauderdale.
Torey Alston, who represents the Pembroke Pines area, said he expected the list of potential school closures to be more countywide.
“Clearly there are several measures that have already been recommended that do not pass the smell test for me,” he said at a recent meeting. “We have gone from touching a majority of this county to several self-selected … zones.”
Hepburn said he understands there will also be pushback after the plans are publicly released.
“There’s always difficulties in people understanding there are going to be changes to a school or if a school is going be closed,” he said. “Whatever the board decides, we’ll walk hand-in-hand with our communities and make sure they’re part of the process and the planning phase so they actually get what they want in their schools and to ensure we’re leveraging great opportunities to enhance their schools.”
Here is the list of town halls scheduled:
- 6 p.m. April 29, Hollywood Hills High School, 5400 Stirling Road, Hollywood
- 8 p.m. April 30, J.P. Taravella High School, 10600 Riverside Drive, Coral Springs
- 6 p.m. May 1, Dillard High 6 – 12, 2501 N.W. 11th St., Fort Lauderdale
- 6 p.m. May 6, Fort Lauderdale High School, 1600 N.E. Fourth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
- 6 p.m. May 7, Charles W. Flanagan High, 12800 Taft St., Pembroke Pines
- 6 p.m. May 8, Western High, 1200 S.W. 136th Ave., Davie
- 6 p.m. May 9, Deerfield Beach High School, 910 Buck Pride Way, Deerfield Beach
For more information go to browardschools.com/redefining.
