As Broward schools assess enrollment in the coming years, some public schools could eventually be closed in what officials are calling a “right-sizing” effort.
School Board member Allen Zeman is advocating for about 35 closures to start in the 2024-2025 school year and continue gradually over four years. Each closed school, including administrative and operational costs, could save the district as much as $2 million, he said. Closing as many as 40 elementary, middle and high schools would still leave 200 schools in operation,
“We have more facilities than we have student load,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. A likely scenario would be looking at a situation of “three elementary schools within a mile of each other and all of them underenrolled.”
The idea alone draws the ire of union leaders for both principals and teachers, and some community members also would likely oppose such closures.
Despite the likely pushback ahead, some School Board members are open to discussing the possibility, but there has been no formal decision or vote. School district spokesman John Sullivan said it was “something they are going to take a look at.”
No specific schools have been publicly identified for potential closure. It remains to be seen if it’ll happen: The possibility of school closures has been broached before.
In 2020, the district mulled the idea of closing or combining about 30 Broward schools as a way to deal with nearly half-empty campuses. Particularly targeted were schools that are in the southern part of the county, from Hollywood to Pembroke Pines, where thousands of students left for charter schools.
Three years later, the district is still struggling with enrollment, where the numbers of Broward students continued its downward trend. And that concern could endure after a state law expanded taxpayer-funded vouchers to all Florida students and eliminating income-eligibility requirements. The law is set to go into effect Saturday.
State officials said it would offer “universal choice,” allowing parents of any school-age child to get state funds that could pay for private school tuition or homeschooling services and supplies. For public schools, it means more competition for students, which could mean less revenue streaming in for each child who leaves.
The value in selling off schools is for the land, which could be turned into something lucrative, such as housing.
The district would work with other agencies, including cities, to see which locations “could be repurposed that has tremendous social value,” Zeman said. “We don’t get many chances like this. We need to start thinking about public land in its entirety. Yes, there will be people who have to go to a different school” but the reallocation could mean more money spent on each student.
“We’re operating in a very inefficient way now,” he said. “Right-sizing schools is a positive change if you do it right. … This is just a tremendous opportunity to build a better Broward County.”
Zeman recently told members of the Broward County Planning Council, a multi-jurisdictional planning agency with leaders from multiple cities and the county, that the district has been “actively talking about repurposing schools. Our estimates are on the tune of 40 or so schools countywide where we have more schools than students.”
“Coming down 40 does make great fiscal sense,” he told the Planning Council, and it’s a chance to “reimagine what that land can do.”
Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said it’s worth talking about. “There could be opportunity.”
In a case where there are “old public schools that need a lot of work, (the) neighborhood and city (could be) better served by the school district reinvesting in a single larger facility than keep repairing seriously old facilities,” he said.
Zeman has the support of many other board members who are open to the discussion.
“I believe we’re wasting a lot of money if we don’t right-size schools,” said Board member Jeff Holness at a recent budget workshop.
Holness said this week it was an idea worth exploring to “see how beneficial it will be to the district. It’s a very delicate process because communities are affected. I believe the dialogue should start and we should look at all of our schools and engage the community if this would be beneficial.”
Agreed Board member Debbi Hixon: “We have a lot of spaces where if we decide schools are not necessary” the district could work with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing for employees, particularly cafeteria workers and bus drivers.
She said the district can start “figuring out what schools we are going to keep, which ones we wouldn’t. If the building isn’t worth repairing, then let’s talk about demolishing it and how we repurpose that land where it works for the community.”
School administration voiced support.
“We appreciate your support of absorbing the class-size reduction issue,” Judith Marte, deputy superintendent for operations, told board members after Zeman suggested no schools be closed in the upcoming school year that starts in two months, but then “ramp up” efforts in subsequent school years. “We can’t afford to keep 500 teachers that we don’t have funding for unless we make significant cuts somewhere else,” she said.
And until schools are shuttered for good, there may not be certain improvements made to those buildings in the meantime.
Marte told the board that the district would be “careful not to invest in schools that potentially would be repurposed.”
But Pompano Beach Mayor Rex Hardin warns district officials to “tread lightly,” warning that once land is sold to another governmental agency, it could be irreversible.
“Once schools are gone, into another’s entities hands, it’s much more difficult to get properties back,” he said.
The district can expect some pushback.
Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said “there is no justification to close any school.”
“Schools are in communities for a reason,” she said. If neighborhood schools are closed, that could hurt property values in those cities, she said. And it would mean unemployment for the principals, teachers and staff at those schools, she said.
“It is not a good idea to close any school,” Fusco said.
Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, said she understands the district’s position. “However, to say we should just sell everything because these schools are underenrolled is equally misguided. The one thing you cannot do is get land back. I think it would be foolhardy to start selling off our assets because they will not be able to be replaced.”
One building she thinks should be considered for sale: The administration’s downtown Fort Lauderdale headquarters because of the location. “It is the most prime real estate the district owns,” Maxwell said.
And the student population — and the need — could grow: “People are not going to stop coming to Florida, and they aren’t going to stop coming to Broward County.”
The idea to “repurpose” schools is being done elsewhere: In Missouri, Kansas City Public Schools has embarked on reusing and redeveloping dozens of its closed school sites. Some sites have been turned into apartment complexes or co-working spaces, according to The Kansas City Beacon. A school spokesman did not comment.
And in Pennsylvania, the 1912-era West Philadelphia High was turned into an apartment building, and a technical school for high school kids was turned into multiple businesses, including a rooftop bar and a bakery, according to a school district spokeswoman. But West Philadelphia High was built anew to replace its former building.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash