Broward County School Board Chair Sarah Leonardi, left, Superintendent Howard Hepburn and board member Debra Hixon during a news conference at the Kathleen C. Wright Administration Center in Fort Lauderdale, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Joe Cavaretta
South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Broward County School Board will vote Tuesday on whether it should direct the superintendent to devise a plan to cut school district staff by 1,000 positions each year for three years.
School board member Jeff Holness added an item to Tuesday’s board meeting agenda that, if passed by the board, would require Superintendent Howard Hepburn to develop and present a “comprehensive staffing alignment plan” by the May 12 workshop meeting that reduces staff by 3,000 positions over three consecutive years. The board would then vote to approve the plan no later than June 30, according to a summary on the agenda.
“While our School District is performing well academically, we have serious financial concerns,” Holness said in a statement. “We must be resolute in taking action to put our District on a more stable financial path, where we can properly compensate our teachers and staff and efficiently meet the needs of our students.”
This comes at a fiscally dire time for Broward County Public Schools, which has lost significant revenue as school enrollment declines each year. While student enrollment dropped by about 38,000 over the last ten years, staffing numbers barely changed. That left the district’s financial situation “out of whack,” Hepburn said at a meeting last year. The district, which employs about 20,000 people, expects to lose another 9,000 students this coming school year.
The school board and superintendent have been looking for ways to reduce the budget by $80 million, like closing underenrolled schools, cutting coverage for weight-loss drugs for teachers and cutting 1,000 jobs this year through layoffs and attrition. In a Feb. 20 email sent to employees about layoffs, the school district said it will primarily cut district-level positions, not teachers and school-based positions, the Sun Sentinel reported.
A document on Tuesday’s agenda summarizing the multi-year staff reduction idea says that cutting staff by 3,000 jobs would align “staffing levels proportionally with projected student enrollment declines” and the school district’s operational needs. Holness said the three-year plan includes the currently planned 1,000 job cuts for this year and would “likely impact mostly non-instructional staff,” not teachers.
“It is the District’s responsibility to take action now to address this issue and put us on a more sustainable financial path that supports both students and staff,” Holness said.
Board Chair Sarah Leonardi said she wants to hear analysis from her colleagues and staff on what kind of job positions would be on the chopping block and how unionized jobs would be impacted. She said the district should save money by eliminating certain administrative positions, exiting redundant contracts, renegotiating necessary contracts and closing more schools.
“It’s not something I’m committed to one way or another, but I do agree with the general philosophy that we need to adjust our employment with respect to the decline in enrollment,” Leonardi said. “A multi-year plan, in some ways, sounds like a good idea, but there may be some barriers to that.”
School board member Adam Cervera said he is supportive of the item as written, which he stressed would not impact teachers. Reducing staff numbers is just one way for the district to save much-needed money, he said. Cervera told the Herald the district pays far too much on overtime for district-level staff and should sell the Kathleen C. Wright Administration Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
“We have to take drastic measures,” Cervera said. “Incidentally and unfortunately, some people will have to be laid off over this because we can’t continue to sustain and operate the district as if nothing has changed with our enrollment.”
Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said the proposed multi-year plan “shocked me” and questioned whether school board members are allowed to compel the superintendent to cut jobs.
If the superintendent does come up with a three-year plan to cut 3,000 jobs, Fusco said teachers and other school-based employees are sure to be impacted.
“How could it not? We are the largest group. We have 12,600 teachers. There’s no other group that has that amount,” Fusco said. “To keep saying it’s not going to touch a teacher, it’s not going to impact the school, is not forthcoming.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 5:56 PM.