Broward’s efforts to improve student performance and convert elementary schools into K-8 academies are showing no signs of reversing a decades-long trend of plummeting enrollment.
The school district released preliminary data this past week that shows that enrollment in both district-run and charter schools on Aug. 11, the first day of school, fell by a whopping 9,498 students, from 249,563 to 240,065, compared to the first day of school a year ago. On last year’s first day of school, enrollment fell by 2,337 from the previous years.
Most of this year’s drop comes from traditional district-run schools, which now have 191,507 students, down 8,733 students from a year ago. But charter schools, which have experienced nearly three decades of growth, also saw a small decline this year, falling by 765 students. Last year, charter school enrollment had increased by 339 students.
The district also saw declines in some traditionally high-growth regions, such as Weston and Davie, as well as in middle schools that are close to new K-8 schools.
The drops come in spite of a banner year for both traditional and charter schools, where most got A’s and B’s from the state and not a single one was rated D or F. The district’s overall grade, including charters, was an A for the second straight year.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn said in a recent interview that he expects to recommend that some schools be closed due to low enrollment. The district has lost 35,000 students over the past decade and has more than 45,000 empty seats.
A Broward school spokeswoman said the first day of school data is too preliminary to draw conclusions, as some students are still enrolling, and that an official enrollment count will be conducted in September.
“When we have all the data, it will be analyzed to see what we can glean from the numbers,” spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Until then, it would be speculation.”
In recent interviews, school officials have attributed enrollment declines to lower birth rates in the county, a large number families leaving due to financial reasons and the wide availability of vouchers to fund private and home school education.
“Parents have more options,” School Board member Adam Cervera said. “We’ve got to get our act together and do a better job of fixing the things that are wrong, and for the things we do right, we’ve got to do a better job of getting the message out.”
But Cervera said he’s aware of another challenge firsthand. He’s in the market for a house in the Weston area.
“Broward County is expensive,” he said. “You’re seeing people leaving and moving away.”
Cervera, who was appointed to the School Board by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, represents District 6, which includes Weston, Davie, Cooper City, Southwest Ranches and part of Sunrise. It’s one of the few areas in the county that hasn’t experienced enrollment declines in recent years. But that changed this year.
Enrollment fell at most Weston schools. Cypress Bay High in Weston, the largest high school in the state, dropped by nearly 200 students this year, to 4,425. Tequesta Trace Middle School lost 118 students, Country Isles Elementary lost 112 and Manatee Bay Elementary lost 75.
In Davie, the historically crowded Western High lost 294 students, bringing its enrollment to 3,389. Davie Elementary lost 78 students, Silver Ridge Elementary 73 students and Fox Trail Elementary 78.
Enrollment was stable at some western-area middle schools, including Pioneer Middle in Cooper City, Falcon Cove in Weston and Indian Ridge in Davie.
But a number of other middle schools experienced dramatic declines, including New River in Fort Lauderdale, which fell by 157, and Driftwood in Hollywood, which dropped by 147.
Several middle schools in areas where four new K-8 schools opened also saw declines. In most cases, these middle schools lost more students than the K-8 schools gained. This year, the new K-8 schools only added sixth-grade classes, with seventh and eighth grades phased in over the next two years.
Silver Shores STEAM Academy K-8 in Miramar gained 50 new sixth graders, but lost students in other grades, resulting in a net enrollment increase of just seven students. Nearby Glades Middle, where many Silver Shores students have traditionally attended, lost 174 students.
Glades Middle also serves students who attended Coral Cove in Miramar, which also converted to a K-8. A second school that serves Coral Cove alums, New Renaissance Middle in Miramar, lost 189 students. Coral Cove gained 81 students.
Hollywood Central Preparatory K-8 gained 62 students, but its two feeder schools lost more than triple that. Attucks Middle in Hollywood lost 161 students, while Olsen Middle in Dania Beach lost 62 students. The district considered closing Olsen as part of Hollywood Central’s K-8 conversion but decided against it at the urging of Dania Beach city leaders.
The fourth new K-8, Coconut Creek K-8 Academy of Excellence, increased its enrollment by 20 students but nearby middle schools had big drops. Lyons Creek Middle in Coconut Creek dropped by 229, while Margate Middle fell by 168.
School Board member Nora Rupert, who represents the northeast part of Broward, said she’s not panicking yet until she sees official enrollment numbers in a couple of weeks.
She said many families in her area take summer vacations that stretch on past the first day of school.
“I certainly never would want to hurt any of my schools, but I do know that the K-to-8 model has been a request for many, many people in south Coconut Creek where I live,” Rupert said. “Parents really wanted to stay in our neighborhood school. So I think this is going to work out, but I think we may have some growing pains.”
In recent decades, Broward lost most of its students to charter schools, which exploded in the county in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The enrollment stabilized in the last few years as fewer schools opened, but this year, charter school enrollment dipped from 49,323 to 48,558.
“Parents in Florida can choose from a wide range of high-quality K–12 options, including district/zoned public schools, public charter schools, magnet programs, virtual schools, microschools, homeschool, and private programs,” said Lynn Norman-Teck, executive director of the Florida Charter School Alliance, an advocacy group.
Florida’s robust menu of education options also results in the shifting of enrollment patterns,” she said. “The decline in public school enrollment is influenced by several factors — including population movement, housing costs, and overall cost of living — not solely the availability of a variety of programs.”
The school with the most dramatic enrollment decline was Ben Gamla Charter School South, which plummeted from 325 students to just five students. That’s because the school, which teaches Hebrew, lost its lease at the Soref Jewish Community Center in Plantation and had no nearby alternatives, said lawyer and former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, the school’s founder. The school ended up moving 14 miles away to the campus of International Studies Academy, a charter school in Hollywood.
“We didn’t get approval from the School Board to make the move until June, and in terms of the transition between elementary and middle school, parents had already made up their minds before June,” Deutsch said.
But Deutsch said the school is in good financial shape, and he said parents who attend a popular Ben Gamla elementary school in Hollywood have been asking for a middle school, and he thinks enrollment will increase.
“We’re not really that concerned about it. We are trying this. We think and we hope that it’s going to work,” he said.
Although enrollment in most Broward schools dropped, there were some exceptions. Enrollment at Nova High, a Davie school that serves the entire county, climbed by 113 students. And Northeast High, which had suffered years of enrollment declines, increased by 162.
The school had poor facilities for years and was a poster child for a decaying school during a 2014 campaign to persuade voters to approve a bond referendum.
But a new classroom building was completed a couple of years ago and the school also has added a high-level program affiliated with Cambridge University in England to attract students.
“I’ve always been very impressed with the academic things going on there,” said School Board member Sarah Leonardi, who represents Northeast. “Perhaps now the perception of the school is matching the positive things happening at the school.”