Education | Which Schools Will Be Considered for Closure in Broward? Likely Not High Schools

Broward high schools will likely stay open as the school district considers which schools to shutter, combine or overhaul due to declining student enrollment.

The school district has committed to closing or making major changes to at least five distinct schools during the 2025-26 school year. Last month, the district released a list of 67 schools with enrollments below 70% of their capacity, criteria that qualify them as underenrolled and subject to review under district policy.

Five of those on the list were high schools: Blanche Ely High in Pompano Beach, Stranahan High in Fort Lauderdale, Northeast High in Oakland Park, Hallandale High in Hallandale Beach and Plantation High.

But after holding three community town halls this month in Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs and Pembroke Pines to get feedback on the district’s school reorganization plan, Superintendent Peter Licata told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Friday he doesn’t see any high schools closing.

“We do not believe high schools are in play,” Licata said, although some will likely see changes with new programs, a new focus or more options for students who don’t live in a school’s traditional boundary.

“High schools really are the community center for many cities and the end all for our educational system,” he said. “Even our most underenrolled high schools are not severely underenrolled.”

Northeast High is the most underenrolled high school at 56% followed by Stranahan at 57.5%. But the district also used these schools as the poster children to sell an $800 million school renovation bond in 2014 and have invested millions in the two campuses. Closing either likely would have created a major community backlash.

The district also has set additional criteria besides enrollment for possible school closures.

These include low academic performance, the condition of school facilities and the proximity to other nearby schools. The district may merge nearby elementary or middle schools or combine a nearby elementary and middle to create a K-8 school, officials said.

The district hasn’t said which specific schools are the most vulnerable to closing, and few schools meet all the criteria of being underenrolled, low-performing, in poor physical shape and close to another school with room to house those students.

For example, C-rated Pines Middle in Pembroke Pines is the most underenrolled school in the county, with its enrollment about a third of its capacity.

It’s also close to two other middle schools that are about two-thirds full, B-rated Walter C. Young in Pembroke Pines and C-rated New Renaissance Middle in Miramar. However, Pines Middle also has the newest facilities of the three, with a major classroom building that opened in 2005.

The lowest performing middle school in the county, D-rated McNicol Middle in Hollywood, also has modern facilities, built in 1997 and renovated five years ago.

The district has six A- or B-rated elementary schools in Miramar built in the late 1990s and 2000s that are in mostly good physical shape: Coconut Palm, Coral Cove, Dolphin Bay, Silver Lakes, Silver Shores and Sunset Lakes.

But they’re on average half empty, raising speculation that the district may consolidate some of them.

“The population is going down there, but it isn’t that simple as looking at enrollment. There are other factors to consider,” Licata said.

One low-enrolled and low-performing school with older facilities is Broward Estates Elementary in Fort Lauderdale.

It has been D- or F-rated for much of the past decade and some of its classrooms date to 1957.

The school is next door to Parkway Middle, which also is underenrolled. The district has talked for years about converting the two into a K-8 school, but the community has been resistant, said Nathalie Lynch-Walsh, chairwoman of the district’s Facilities Task Force.

She said a better solution may be to combine Broward Estates, which is barely a third full, with Dr. Martin Luther King Elementary, which is about two-thirds full and about a mile away.

Lynch-Walsh also recommends closing Collins Elementary, a tiny deteriorating campus in Dania Beach with about 250 students, and move those students to the larger Bethune Elementary, about 1.5 miles away. Bethune has 697 students with room for 261 more.

A district analysis in 2014 rated Collins as one of the district schools most in need of replacement and the district has made only minor investments in the school since then.

Many parents said at the town halls that if their kids have to attend a new school, they want it to be close.

“There is a concern around transportation and making sure the changes do not extend the period of time students are on a bus,” Zoie Saunders, chief strategy and innovation officer for Broward schools, told the Sun Sentinel.

Some community meeting attendees also warned the district about targeting certain areas. Historically, parents and community activists in the eastern part of the county have complained that when the district built newer schools out west to accommodate growth, they left their older schools in disrepair.

“The community emphasized the importance of equity in decision-making and involving the community at every phase of this process,” Saunders said. “The community also highlighted concerns about the impact for low-income students who depend on the school for food and other services and making sure that we’re focusing on the needs of the whole child in these decisions.”

At a Thursday meeting at Charles Flanagan High in Pembroke Pines, Katrina Touchstone, a parent and West Park city commissioner, said she was concerned because three of her local schools were on the district’s low-enrolled list: Watkins Elementary in Pembroke Park, McNicol Middle in Hollywood and Hallandale High, the latter of which Licata confirmed Friday won’t be closed.

Touchstone noted that Watkins is used as a hurricane shelter. She questioned whether there would be increased traffic if developers take over school sites, as well as what would happen if the area has a future population surge and more school seats are needed.

Khandia Pinkney, a district administrator who helped facilitate the session Touchstone attended, cautioned Touchstone not to look at the published list as one of likely school closures.

“It’s a list of schools with issues in terms of enrollment,” Pinkey said. “It may not be that school that is redefined, it might be the next school in the boundary that is redefined.”

Touchstone pushed back saying, “They’re targeted schools that potentially can be closed, so we have to talk about that potential and the impact of that potential.”

Schools in the south part of the county have faced major enrollment declines in the past two decades as the school district was late to build schools to accommodate massive growth in the 1990s. As a result, charter schools have attracted numerous students and have grown in popularity over the past 25 years, even as new district schools opened.

Private school vouchers also have appealed to many parents in recent years.

Parents at the forum discussed possible reasons so many parents have left for other educational options.

“There’s a different level of instruction,” said Carmelo Borges, who chairs the district’s South Area Advisory Council. “As a parent of three, teaching to the test is not the way for a child to learn. Curriculum needs to be looked at the charters and the privates, so we can mimic that.”

Dawn Goldstein, a Davie parent of three, also said charter schools have a more welcoming atmosphere. She said students in district-run schools often feel like they’re being constantly watched by police and security staff.

“At the big charter schools, the climate and the culture, when you walk on those campuses from front door to back is, ‘We’re happy to see you, we’re here for you,'” Goldstein said. “I walk on a lot of Broward campuses where I do not feel like that.”

The district’s next steps are to discuss options with the School Board at a March 20 workshop to discuss some specific options and then meet with local governments, community and education groups and places of worship in areas that may be most affected by the changes.