After years of delaying efforts to downsize a district with shrinking enrollment, the Broward School Board gave its strongest indication to date on Tuesday that it’s ready to start closing schools.

Most School Board members supported a proposal to close six of seven recommended schools for the 2026-27 school year recommended by Superintendent Howard Hepburn.

A majority of board members even said they are willing to sell or lease their own headquarters, the high-rise K.C. Wright administrative building in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and move operations to closed or low-enrolled schools.

The schools most board members supported closing are:

— Bair Middle in Sunrise.

— North Fork Elementary in Fort Lauderdale.

— Plantation Middle, with Plantation High becoming a 6-12 school with a public safety magnet program.

— Either Fairway Elementary or Sunshine Elementary in Miramar.

— Either Palm Cove Elementary or Pines Lakes Elementary in Pembroke Pines.

— Glades Middle in Miramar, with the site converting into a branch campus of Sheridan Technical College.

District administrators also proposed either closing Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke Pines or converting it into a 3-8 gifted education and dual language academy. Both options are still on the table but board members say they need more information before recommending either of those.

The only major proposal that didn’t advance was one to close Forest Glen Middle in Coral Springs.

Board member Lori Alhadeff, whose district includes the school, argued that the district has 36 middle schools and 19 are more underenrolled than Forest Glen. She recommended putting new programs in the school to attract students.

“I think that it’s ridiculous that we would even be thinking about potentially closing Forest Glen Middle School when compared to the other middle schools within the district,” Alhadeff said.

Board members also supported a proposal to redesign Hallandale Beach High to replicate the academically rigorous Pompano Beach High School, which operates four days a week. They also supported proposals from Dania Beach, Hollywood, Pembroke Park and Sunrise to use portions of school campuses for other purposes.

Three regional town halls are scheduled to get community input before any final recommendations are made. A northern meeting is planned for Oct. 27 at Coral Springs High. A central meeting is scheduled for Nov. 6 at Dillard High. The south meeting is planned for Nov. 13 at Miramar High.

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Hepburn plans to make his final recommendations for the School Board to consider in December.

The moves are part of a district initiative to deal with declining enrollment called “Redefining Broward County Public Schools.”

The district has been losing students for about two decades and now has about 50,000 empty seats, equivalent to more than 40 schools.

In the past, board members have supported the concept in general of closing schools, but hesitated when specific schools were named, especially if the campuses were in their own district. Last year, they only agreed to close one school, Broward Estates Elementary in Lauderhill.

But this year is different, they say, as the district suffered a giant 10,000 student enrollment drop over the past year, and new state laws have made it easier for charter and private schools to take over all or portions of school campuses and state leaders have started efforts to “DOGE” local governments where they see possible wasteful spending.

“I believe if we don’t act immediately, others will act for us,” Board member Jeff Holness said. “So we must make these decisions.”

Board member Rebecca Thompson, whose Pembroke Pines and Miramar district would be the most affected of any board member’s district, agreed the district had little choice.

“There have been warning signs for years, but the previous school board and district did not act,” she said. “I don’t believe this was out of malice, but because it’s incredibly hard to look at families and teachers and principals in the eye and say that our district, as it is currently operating, isn’t sustainable.

“At the same time, we need to take accountability. We didn’t adapt quickly enough to the changing educational landscape, the growth of taxpayer-funded vouchers, the expansion of charter schools and the shifting enrollment patterns,” Thompson said. “And we consistently under-invested in maintaining our buildings and programs in a way that could have brought our families back and kept the families we have.”

Several board members said closed schools should not be sold but should be used for district space or should be leased to local governments or community organizations.

“History tends to be cyclical,” Holness said. “We may be underenrolled, but in 20 or 30 years we may be overenrolled and won’t have the space for Broward students. We have to think not just about the moment but for generations to come.”

One idea from Board member Allen Zeman was to convert Plantation Middle into the district headquarters, possibly keeping the name of K.C. Wright in honor of Kathleen C. Wright, an educator and School Board member who was killed in a plane crash in 1985.

The current K.C. Wright building in downtown Fort Lauderdale has been cited as an example of wasteful spending since it opened in the early 1990s, with critics deriding it as the “Crystal Palace.”

“I am tired of people looking at a glass palace and wondering why we’re spending money here when we could be spending money at schools,” Zeman said.

The proposals followed a series of private meetings with local cities and public town halls.

About 45 people spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, and the results were mixed, with some praising the district’s effort to seek community input and others urging the district not to close or dramatically change their schools.

Penelope Gabarrete, a parent, voiced fear about what may happen to Panther Run Elementary in Pembroke Pines. A district plan proposes converting it into a special day school for students with autism.

“I am scared,” Gabarrete told the School Board. “We are all scared. Scared to see our children suffer the emotional stress and lose the foundation they’ve worked so hard to build. We’re scared to see the relationships they fostered for so long, suddenly torn apart. We’re scared for them to be placed somewhere new, where they might lose their sense of belonging.”

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/10/07/broward-starts-weighing-the-latest-ideas-to-close-schools/