It was another tense and brutal week for the Broward County School Board.
Once again, a self-inflicted controversy exploded in public, this time over a singular symbol of student achievement: high school graduation, a milestone moment when misty-eyed parents watch their kids begin their adult lives.
To save money, the School Board planned to relocate some graduations to high school gymnasiums instead of glitzy locales such as Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood.
Late Friday, hoping to quiet a firestorm of criticism, the district backed down and said it would find money to keep all graduations “in the same venue, or a comparable venue, as used in 2025.”
Watching Broward School Board meetings online has become must-see TV for all the wrong reasons. Things must improve quickly, or even bigger controversies are ahead, especially with a politically hostile governor describing the district as a “disaster.”
It’s all about money
The graduation mess follows a string of other problems: a mismanaged building lease, a botched contract award exposed by a critical audit and five-figure bonuses paid to top staff members from a voter-approved referendum intended for classrooms.
The current controversy is closely tied to yet another problem: the district’s deepening financial crisis, due largely to a steep decline in student enrollment.
By moving some commencements away from increasingly costly private sites, the financially ailing school district could have saved about half a million dollars a year. By retreating, the board risks perpetuating the notion that it will cave to public pressure. That will make future budget-cutting decisions that much harder.
Under the abandoned graduation plan, bigger schools, such as Cypress Bay in Weston and Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, would keep their ceremonies at venues such as Hard Rock Live or Nova Southeastern University in Davie.
To students and parents, it was obvious: Affluent, mostly white schools would still graduate at large private venues while other students and their families would squeeze into gyms with steep stairs, less parking and obstacles for people with disabilities. On its face, it made a mockery of the district’s mantra of equity for all.
Rebecca Sherman, a Fort Lauderdale High School senior, said she was “disappointed and enraged” after reviewing school-area census data.
“Schools graduating at Hard Rock Live are in cities with higher median incomes and lower minority enrollment,” Sherman told board members. If cutting costs is the goal, she asked, shouldn’t the district avoid Hard Rock Live, the priciest graduation venue of all?
Sherman and other seniors who spoke surely acted as if they are getting quality educations. They were passionate and persuasive — positive symbols of this A-rated district.
‘More work to do’
The day before the graduation blowup, Superintendent Howard Hepburn and board chair Sarah Leonardi held a lengthy online discussion with the Editorial Board, where both officials candidly acknowledged the district’s problems.
The talk followed a recent op-ed by Hepburn in which he expressed frustration with a lack of balance in the paper’s coverage of the district, a decision he concedes would have been better handled by a direct conversation.
Leonardi said the district has done well in engaging the public in its “redefining” exercise that will close six schools due to enrollment declines, “but there are some things where we screwed it up.”
Hepburn described inheriting a “level of chaos” as a result of extreme turnover in leadership. When hired, he was the sixth superintendent in about three years, including two temporary leaders — an astonishing level of instability.
“Transparency is our best friend,” Hepburn said. “It’s our job to fix these problems. We have more work to do.”
Indeed they do.
The chaos and controversy obscures positive developments that are occurring in Broward schools every day.
An uplifting voice
Broward County Public Schools
Mariah Rabideau of Weston addressed Broward school board members on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2026.
As the marathon meeting announcing the venue changes neared its end in a nearly empty room, a parent rose to praise the board for keeping most school boundaries stable (ever-shifting school boundaries tore the district apart in the 1980s).
Mariah Rabideau of Weston, whose 11-year-old daughter is in the sixth grade, works full-time and couldn’t get to the meeting until it was nearly over.
After what she called three frustrating years in a private school, she said, she moved her child to a better place — a Broward public school.
With the district facing an extreme financial shortfall, Rabideau said it’s more important than ever for Broward schools to improve the quality and quantity of communication.
“You cannot be complacent,” she told board members. “Strategic communication and pro-active family engagement are no longer optional. They are critical to financial stability here.”
We couldn’t agree more. When the Broward School Board stumbles, everybody feels it. The time for a positive turnaround is now.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.