FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward County School Board approved the closure of six different schools under a plan spearheaded by the superintendent in an hours-long board meeting on Wednesday.
The plan, which will take effect in the fall for the upcoming school year, will see thousands of students heading to a new school.
While the plan initially was to close seven schools, supporters of Bair Middle School in Sunrise spoke out and convinced board members to keep their school open.
“Please don’t close our school,” said one student.
Sunrise City leaders appeared at the board meeting to help keep the school’s doors open by announcing they will partner with the school board and co locate city programs on the school campus.
“We’re going to invest a lot in the schools. It’s going to prevent having a school desert, making sure that our children are first,” said City of Sunrise Assistant Deputy Mayor Latoya Clark.
School board members liked the idea of bringing some programs into the school.
“The City of Sunrise, their commitment to co-locate some of their programs into our schools is wonderful, and we hope a lot of other municipalities will follow suit,” said Broward school board member Dr. Jeff Holness.
District officials also pondered whether consolidating Bair Middle with Westpine Middle would push the school’s capacity to the limit.
Once the school future was in the board’s hands, they decided to keep it open.
“The recommendation to close Bair [Middle] failed, so that means that Bair will be staying open,” said School Board Chair Sarah Leonardi.
Supporters of the middle school were ecstatic following the vote.
“We are ecstatic that the school board decided to put our children first,” said Bair Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association President Cleo Milledge Allen.
“The fact that we won this vote shows they know our community isn’t going to back down,” said Bair Middle School parent Jeanette Marcel.
Still, six other schools weren’t spared from the chopping block and will be shutting their doors come August.
School board officials decided to move forward with the following plan:
- Plantation Middle will close, with students moving to Plantation High, creating a grade 6-12 school.
- North Fork Elementary will close, with students headed to Walker Elementary or split between four other schools.
- Sunshine Elementary will close, with students moving to Fairway Elementary.
- Panther Run Elementary will close, with students headed to Chapel Trail Elementary.
- Seagull Alternative High will close, with students moving to Whiddon Rogers Education Center.
Officials with the school district said thousands of seats are empty on many of their campuses because of the dip in enrollment, a trend happening nationwide.
Moreover, district officials said, from a financial perspective, it simply isn’t sustainable, but they have a whole plan they’ve been working on for two years.
“We have to take action. We have to take responsible action,” said Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn.
After a two-year process, the school board took one last look at a school rearrangement plan that, officials said, will save the district millions of dollars as the number of students continues to drop.
“Our footprint is way too large for the amount of students that we have. We have over 50,000 open seats when you combine them from different schools,” said Hepburn.
Before the vote, Hepburn spoke to 7News, saying that while class sizes won’t increase, opportunities for students will.
“We’re spending more money on operating the schools, keeping the lights on, the [air conditioning] going, keeping the water flowing, dealing with facilities, projects,” he said. “We’re spending more money on those things than we are on instruction.”
The plan came together after years of town halls and input from parents and students. Not everyone got what they wanted, but officials hope the transition is smooth after the board’s vote.
Earlier in the day, the Broward Teachers Union warned about the possible fallout from closing these schools.
Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said the school system still had not done its due diligence, especially when dealing with all the cities that might be affected by these closures.
“The staff has not brought forward an authentic, genuine business plan on having the cities come in and help, because they all will. They love our public schools. Their children go to our public schools. They graduated from our public schools. Why would they not want to be part of the process?” said Fusco.
“I believe that classes and schools will be overcrowded, jam-packed, with teachers and traffic. It’s just– everything is going to change, combining two schools to one,” said Sunrise Deputy Mayor Jacqueline Guzman.
Following Wednesday evening’s vote, Hepburn said this may not be the last round of closures. He added the district is looking at other ways to save money by adjusting staff levels to match enrollment through resignations, retirements, or layoffs.
School board officials say they will meet with the principals of the affected schools as soon as Thursday to begin the transition process.
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