Broward residents are getting a range of ideas of what the future of their public school system could look like.
Broward County Public Schools is undertaking what could be one of its greatest challenges in recent years: a major effort to consolidate the district’s resources following two decades of declining enrollment — which could result in the closure of an unknown number of schools.
READ MORE: 'We're not going to piecemeal it': Broward could close many more than five schools in coming years
At a workshop on Wednesday, the school board outlined their priorities for the district’s “Redefining Our Schools” effort. Here are some takeaways that stakeholders shared at Wednesday’s meeting.
1. Focus on schools with the lowest enrollment.
To the surprise of some, Superintendent Peter Licata did not present a list of schools targeted for repurposing at Wednesday’s meeting. The district has identified 68 schools that are officially under-enrolled, that is, under 70% capacity. At Wednesday’s meeting, Licata asked for board members to help him narrow down which schools to focus on.
Some board members said to home in on schools with the most empty seats — those that are operating between 50-60% of their total capacity.
Meanwhile, Board Member Daniel Foganholi pushed back against focusing on the lowest enrollment schools, instead pushing for broad and immediate action, reiterating that he wants to “rip the Band-aid off” instead of dragging out the rightsizing process.
While there are a broad range of opinions on the board, Licata said he feels he has “the freedom” to move forward and that he’ll come back with a more refined plan to present to the board at its meeting on April 16.
“I'm going to refer to it as a list of proposals for the future of Broward County Public Schools,” Licata said. “It's not so much a list of schools but it's a list of proposals. It’ll include academic changes. It’ll include mergers with potentially [public private partnerships]. It will include working in partnership with maybe some cities that have charter schools. Also working with cities that want a charter school.”
The board is expected to take up the plan again on May 14.
2. It’s not just about closing schools.
Board members have a range of philosophies as far as how many schools the district should close to address declining enrollments. Board Member Allen Zeman argued that the district has dozens more schools than it needs — about 60 too many.
Other board members said closing schools should be the last resort — because of the central role neighborhood schools play in communities.
“I'm not saying close schools that are 60% [capacity] or under. I don't believe that we look at really closing any,” said Board Chair Debbi Hixon. “Maybe one or two. But to repurpose and redefine what those under [60% capacity schools] look like and have the conversation — why are they under 60? How do we fix that? Is it fixable?”
Board members threw out a range of ideas for programmatic changes that they hope could boost enrollment, including expanding career and technical education, creating full-choice schools, turning elementary schools into K-8 schools, expanding on-site childcare offerings for school employees and co-locating community nonprofits on district campuses.
3. Historically Black schools deserve special attention.
A common refrain from board members and public speakers at Wednesday’s meeting was that the history and legacy of individual schools must be considered when it comes to decisions about whether to repurpose them — especially when it comes to BCPS’s historically Black schools.
BCPS operated a fully racially segregated school system until the mid 1960s. Ten of the district’s formerly all-Black schools are still in operation — and some of those schools are on the district’s list of under-enrolled campuses, according to a district analysis. Still, Board Member Jeff Holness says those schools have to be treated differently.
“Even if they're significantly under-enrolled, we cannot — we cannot — close those type of schools,” Holness said. “So we have to look at how we can repurpose those schools to function more efficiently and ensuring that they remain open.”
4. Don’t punish schools that the district has neglected.
Related to the concerns around BCPS’s historically Black schools, some board members and community advocates are adamant that the district not punish schools that the district itself has neglected — pointing out that in some cases, the low enrollment numbers at a school may be due to a long-delayed facilities improvements that the district failed to complete on time.
“Many of our under-enrolled schools are under-enrolled because we have not invested in them. And they serve historically marginalized communities,” said Board Member Sarah Leonardi.
“And it is going to be vital moving forward, that our communities that have been neglected are not suffering the disproportionate impact of school closures,” she added, “that instead we stick to our commitment to redefine by looking at a variety of different solutions.”
5. Cut your losses, but leverage the gains.
This process is far from over — and there were some hints that the district’s current timeline, with a final approval scheduled for June 2024, may be too ambitious. Critically, Licata noted Wednesday that the district has not conducted a comprehensive assessment of all its facilities since 2014. While another facilities assessment is in the pipeline, it won’t be done in time for those findings to inform the Redefining Our Schools process.
Still, the board seems to agree that the status quo is unsustainable and the time has come to make major changes.
“Repurposing has such a bad history with it. But if we do it right, people can understand and get excited about it. If you can truly give state of the art programs to communities that don't have access to them, that can get people excited,” Board Member Foganholi said.
“Let's solve the problem. I don't want to just create more problems for the next five years. I really want to get to the solution right now.”
