Plan to close and change Broward schools may get delayed a year, board member says

A plan to close and change a dozen Broward schools in 2025 could get derailed this year due to a flawed process and upcoming elections, School Board member Allen Zeman said Thursday night.

Zeman has been a top advocate for closing low-enrolled schools and investing that money into the remaining schools to improve student achievement. But during a meeting Thursday night with Hollywood residents, he appeared ready to admit defeat — at least for now. He has said the district may have greater success if it postpones the plan until next year.

Superintendent Howard Hepburn is expected to release revised recommendations later today, and the School Board is scheduled to discuss them at a workshop at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Plantation High.

“There’s a chance, and I’d give it more than a 50-50 chance, that we decide the process we followed wasn’t sufficient to satisfy the public demand for information, nor was it sufficient to give us the right data so we can make data-informed decisions,” Zeman said at the meeting.

He also noted that this is an election year, with five School Board seats up. Zeman is not one of them as his term expires in 2026.

“It’s difficult to make real big changes at a time when everyone is out campaigning, so it may make sense to take two years of change and do it all next year,” he said.

The School Board agreed last summer to make plans to close or repurpose at least five schools for the 2025-26 school year, with any final decisions made next month. But the process has been wrought with challenges, including the chief architects of the district’s plans, Superintendent Peter Licata and Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Zoie Saunders, both stepping down unexpectedly.

Board members also have complained district administrators have been slow to release information, and then once they did, used data and logic that many found to be flawed and targeted at only a few communities.

— While the process had focused on schools that were underenrolled, one of the schools recommended for closure, Oakridge Elementary in Hollywood, is 76% full, well above the district’s stated threshold.

— Another school recommended for closure, Olsen Middle in Dania Beach, had a 102-student growth this school year, and more than 10,000 new housing units have been approved in the city.

— The district’s closures focused on low-income schools in the east part of the county, while leaving all schools in Pembroke Pines open, despite severe underenrollment, including one school that’s two-thirds empty.

— Administrators proposed converting Virginia Shuman Young Elementary from a Montessori magnet school to a neighborhood school, arguing residents in the Victoria Park neighborhood couldn’t get in. But the district has assigned 150 neighborhood seats, and they’re not being used, and the homeowners association opposed the change.

Parents, students, teachers and supporters of the school packed the Fort Lauderdale High auditorium Monday night to oppose the proposed change.

Zeman said Thursday night he doesn’t expect the Virginia Shuman Young changes to be part of the final recommendations from Hepburn.

“He had to sit in front of 200 people with VSY shirts on. Who thinks VSY is going to be on his recommendation list?” Zeman asked the Hollywood audience.

Zeman agreed to hold the meeting at Hollywood City Hall on Monday night after complaints that from area residents about seven district town halls around the county. In those meetings, district staff and a School Board member did not answer questions from audience members. Attendees were allowed to speak for a minute or two, with their microphones sometimes being shut off if they went over.

The district refused to release its proposed plan until the first town hall at Hollywood Hills High on April 29, giving attendees no advance notice that two schools in their area may be closed.

“That was a process foul on behalf of Broward County Public Schools,” Zeman told attendees Thursday night. “I’ll apologize to the whole community for that. You should have had it way ahead of time. You’re welcome to beat me up over that, even though it was the superintendent’s actions.”

This is a developing story. Check back for more information.