Board members agreed they didn't have enough time to go through the proposal to have Success Academy operate out of five existing high schools — saying they received it just the day before. "We're required to make a vote with a gun to our head," said board member Danny Espino. "I don't think that it's lost on us that we are negotiating from a weakened position."

South Florida violinist Gustavo Correa remembers how New World Symphony co-founder Michael Tilson Thomas — who died at the age of 81 on Wednesday — helped inspire and shape his career. "It was just spectacular," he said.