On a late January night, residents in the close-knit community of Lauderhill came together to get on the same page about a daunting proposal in front of the School Board of Broward County.
They were gathering in Saint George Park to discuss the future they wanted for Broward Estates Elementary and draft their talking points for the school board, which would be deciding whether to close the school.
Their message: 'Keep our school open.'
When they arrived at the board meeting the next day, Jan. 22, they wore shirts with the school name printed in large, red letters on the front. There was lengthy and contentious discussion by board members, and impassioned public comments.
The community push to keep the school open failed to persuade the board, which approved the proposal. As part of a wider, long-gestating and contentious plan for the county's schools, kindergarten through fifth grades will shutter at Broward Estates Elementary, a school with a large majority of Black students, and be repurposed as an early learning center instead.
“This is no new story for me," said Delphia Kaigler, 91, who has lived in the city of Lauderhill for more than 50 years. "I was before this school board in the ‘70s and the ‘80s, trying to save Broward Estates and Parkway. We were able to keep the doors open, but that was it.
"Y’all have done nothing for Broward Estates since that time, but given us promises. If it sounds like I’m angry, it’s because I am.”
READ MORE: Declining enrollment means Broward schools have to change.
The plan for Broward Estates will go into effect next school year. Current students will be consolidated into nearby Martin Luther King, Jr. Montessori Academy, although parents will have other school choices.
The changes approved by the school board are part of a multi-phase plan called 'Redefining Our Schools' intended to mitigate the district’s chronic under-enrollment problem. It involves adding new programs, combining schools, boundary adjustments, school closures and repurposing schools.
When the initiative gained steam last year, the board initially requested a plan to close or consolidate at least five schools. At one point a board member even suggested as many as 40 schools could be affected in this way, although that was quickly met with disapproval.
Now, with the details of the program's first phase ironed out, Coconut Creek Elementary School, Pines Middle School and Silver Shores Elementary are among those facing changes — but Broward Estates is the only one facing closure.
“ I don't like the word closure. We are repurposing,” school board member Jeff Holness of District 5, where Broward Estates is located, told WLRN. “Closure for me means closing it down, selling it, getting rid of the school. That's not what we're doing. We're repurposing the school.”
Holness voted in favor of the proposal.
Broward’s ongoing enrollment drop
There are more than 45,000 empty seats currently in Broward public schools, according to district data.
Rising competition from charter and private schools have caused some of this stress. Superintendent Howard Hepburn also pointed to a lack of new families with young kids moving into Broward.
“ I don't like the word closure. We are repurposing. Closure for me means closing it down, selling it, getting rid of the school. That's not what we're doing. We're repurposing the school.”School board member Jeff Holness.
Since the 2004-2005 school year, enrollment in district schools plummeted from nearly 258,900 to 197,000, according to data shared by the district. Meanwhile, charter school enrollment jumped by nearly 36,500 seats.
But declining enrollment isn't limited to Broward schools.
School districts across the country have seen continuous declines in enrollment numbers. A recent study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found nearly one in 12 public schools in the United States has experienced an enrollment decline of 20% or more in the wake of COVID-19 — that’s the rough equivalent of 5,100 schools.
Miami Dade County Public Schools has reportedly drawn up plans to repurpose 2 schools due to under-enrollment, with a total of 11 set to undergo boundary changes.
In Broward Estates' case, the total school capacity is nearly 700. It had just 222 students enrolled this year. It's the district's most under-enrolled school. That represents a financial burden to the district, as it receives state funding based on student head-count.
“When you look at those numbers and you look at the capacity of the school, we still have to maintain a school with a 700 capacity,” Holness told WLRN. “We still have to provide the required maintenance in order to keep that campus running.”
READ MORE: 'Empty seats are not worth our money': Broward grapples with low enrollment, school consolidation
More students at a school, means more funding. More money means more resources, learning activities and programs.
“We want to ensure that those students are getting fair opportunities, like all other students, to have the appropriate learning resources provided to them, which we believe can be better done at schools that are more enrolled," Holness said, citing the example of Martin Luther King, Jr. Montessori Academy.
The permanent student capacity at Martin Luther King, Jr. Montessori Academy is 72%. Consolidation would fill some empty seats and put the school at 90% capacity usage.
Don’t close our school
Opened in 1957, Broward Estates is a generational jewel for many in Lauderhill, whose children, now grown, went to the school and even have grandchildren there currently. Almost 80% of Lauderhill is Black, according to the U.S. Census.
“This is not just about Broward Estates,” Kaigler, the local resident who spoke out at the board meeting, told WLRN. “This is about the whole community.”
Kaigler's three children went to nearby Plantation Elementary in the late 1970s. Her voice raised as she expressed her belief that the school board is trying to divide the community. She saw the boundaries for Broward Estates Elementary undergo multiple boundary changes in the '70s and '80s and feels they are being targeted once again.
“For 68 years, [the school board has] not been able to do nothing for this community? I mean, it's just blatant discrimination as far as I'm concerned,” Kaigler said.
Latrisha Greaves, a life-long Lauderhill resident who even attended Broward Estates, has been informing people in her neighborhood about the school’s closing.
"I pay tax dollars for all kids, all these children are my children," Greaves said. "I didn’t give birth to them but I pay for their education and I want them to have the best — and I want them to be within their own home school."
And there are those who are new to Lauderhill — and who specifically moved there for Broward Estates.
Deyanira Jimenez’s youngest son, a kindergartener, goes to Broward Estates. Her oldest is in the middle school next to it. Just a week prior to the proposal’s approval, she had no idea there was even talk about closing her little one’s elementary — she only learned about it after speaking with WLRN.
Jimenez, who is Dominican, and her husband, who is Cuban, bought a house in Lauderhill in 2024 after living in Miami for four years. She walks both of her sons to school. Because of that, she said she can’t send her youngest to Martin Luther King, Jr. Montessori Academy – it’s too far from her oldest’s middle school and she doesn't have a car.
Now that Broward Estates is closing, she said they’re planning to move back to Miami.
‘Imagine I move elsewhere in the Fort Lauderdale area and they close that school too,’ she told WLRN over the phone.
“This is not just about Broward Estates. This is about the whole community ... I mean, it's just blatant discrimination as far as I'm concerned."Delphia Kaigler
Gordon Louis also moved to Lauderhill from Miami less than six months ago because of the closeness to Broward Estates.
“He loves it over there,” Louis said of his son, who is in kindergarten. “We just purchased a home around here. So everything is new. We're originally from Miami, but it's like when we come here now, it's all these changes.”
Louis is a high heavy equipment mechanic in Port Everglades and is usually gone 12 hours a day for work, he said. His wife works from home, and he said that in case of an emergency, it's convenient to have the school so close. Louis had also not heard of the proposal prior to being interviewed by WLRN.
When asked about how the district communicated information about the proposal and scheduled meetings for community feedback, a spokesperson said in an email, “the District is committed to meeting the needs of our diverse community.”
Six measures to redefine schools
During that Jan. 22 meeting, the School Board of Broward County passed a total of six measures to redefine schools.
Three elementary schools will be reconfigured as K-8 schools: Coconut Creek Elementary School, Coral Cove Elementary School and Hollywood Central Elementary School. In Pembroke Pines, Pines Middle School will become a sixth through 12th grade collegiate academy.
In Miramar, Silver Shores Elementary would turn into a full-choice school where students can apply to get in. Students currently zoned for Silver Shores would be assigned to Silver Lakes or Silver Palms elementary schools.
Broward Estates in Lauderhill is the only school facing closure.
“This process is not just about closing schools, it’s about creating opportunities, meeting the diverse needs of every child and ensuring families feel confident in choosing Broward County Public Schools,” Superintendent Hepburn said during the meeting. “I want to emphasize that this is just the beginning.”
As of now, the plan to turn Broward Estates into an early learning center doesn’t include updating the school's infrastructure, which was originally built in 1957 and expanded in 1991.
Only a portion of the campus would be used as a district-run early learning center. The rest would be leased to external businesses to operate on campus. Later community and school board meetings will determine what kind of services will be provided.
The prospect of an early learning center at Broward Estates is exciting and necessary, community members said at the meeting the night before the school board vote —but not at the expense of the elementary grades.
Holness said the idea for the early learning center came from community feedback, including from public meetings at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale last year.
Board members and Superintendent Howard Hepburn discussed the dire need for head start programs in Broward during the Jan. 22 meeting, citing data that only about 35% of students within a five-mile radius of Broward Estates are ready for kindergarten.
Board members pointed to the success of Gulfstream Early Learning Center, a district-run facility in Hallandale Beach. Broward Estates' early learning center would be modeled after Gulfstream’s.
Even after the board's vote to close, the Lauderhill community has remained adamant on voicing their desire for Broward Estates to offer elementary grades.
“We want our neighborhood school," Kaigler said, "just as everyone else."
