The majority of Broward schools targeted for closure next year should stay open, a boundary committee tasked with reviewing proposals to the School Board has recommended.
The district’s School Boundary Committee, which consists of about 50 members, is asking the School Board to keep open five of eight schools being proposed for closure: Glades Middle in Miramar, Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke Pines, Panther Run Elementary in Pembroke Pines, North Fork Elementary in Fort Lauderdale and Bair Middle in Sunrise.
The committee did recommend closing three schools during a meeting Tuesday night: Plantation Middle, Sunshine Elementary in Miramar and Palm Cove Elementary in Pembroke Pines. Plantation Middle would merge with nearby Plantation High to create a 6-12 school. Students at Sunshine would attend nearby Fairway Elementary while students at Palm Cove would attend either Pines Lakes Elementary or Lakeside Elementary, both in Pembroke Pines.
The members of the boundary committee included representatives from schools that may face closure or boundary changes, as well as members of district advisory groups.
It’s unclear how much sway the committee’s recommendations will have. Last year, the boundary committee considered a proposal to close just one school, Broward Estates Elementary, and it voted against it. Still, Superintendent Howard Hepburn recommended its closure and the School Board ultimately agreed. The school was converted into an early learning center.
Hepburn is expected to make his own recommendations later this week for the School Board to consider at a workshop scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday. Final decisions are expected to be made next month and would take effect starting with the 2026-27 school year.
The School Board is looking to close schools due to budget constraints as well as concerns about charter schools trying to share space on district campuses.
A new state law allows certain state-approved charter providers to operate what are known as “Schools of Hope” rent-free on the campuses of schools with extra space. So the district is trying to shrink its footprint to stave off those requests. The closed schools may be used as office space, a new type of school or leased space for cities or community organizations.
One proposal would close Glades Middle and convert it into a new branch of Sheridan Technical College, which already has locations for adult students in Hollywood and Pembroke Pines. Glades Middle has 862 students but is built to hold 1,842.
Under the proposal, Glades students would attend either New Renaissance Middle, which is about seven miles away from Glades, or one of several former elementary school campuses that have been converted into K-8 schools.
“Our community is heavily against shutting down our school and turning it into a technical college that is not going to support the needs of the parents there,” committee member Christine McMahon, a teacher at Glades Middle, said at the meeting. “They have all said they will be leaving and going to charter school. So that is 800 and something students, 300 of which don’t even go to our school, who will not be going back to their home school.”
Some questioned whether the Glades campus could serve both middle school and technical college students. Valerie Wanza, a district administrator who led the meeting, said no.
“What I can tell you is the co-mingling of an adult technical education on a middle school campus with middle school children, I don’t think that that would be recommended by anybody,” Wanza told the committee. “Just for the sheer safety and security implications alone.”
The committee voted 43-6 against closing Glades Middle.
Broward School Board members have voiced support for finding a new use for North Fork Elementary, a low-enrolled school in Fort Lauderdale, but the committee was less enthusiastic, voting against two proposals that would close it.
The district has received three offers for a new use for the school. Junior Achievement of South Florida has proposed building an “Innovation Center” for high school students. The Museum of Discovery and Science wants to create a science and technology-themed school. The United Way of Broward County has proposed creating a community resource and service center or using the site for affordable workforce housing.
The Broward School’s boundary advisory committee votes on recommendations to the School Board on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
One proposal to close North Fork would have moved all students to Walker Elementary. Another would have split them between Walker Elementary, Croissant Park Elementary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary and Thurgood Marshall Elementary.
“A school closing affects a lot of children, but it disproportionately affects children of low-income areas even more,” said committee member Shawntel Steele, a media clerk at North Fork who also has two children attending the school.
She said that under one proposal, “you’re basically dismantling a whole culture. You’re taking one building, a culture that’s been built, and you’re putting it in four different schools.”
Committee member Jacqui Luscombe, who chairs the district’s Exceptional Student Education Advisory Council, voted against all school closures except Plantation Middle. She told the South Florida Sun Sentinel she still has questions about potential cost savings and impacts to communities.
“I’m not opposed to closing schools in general as a last resort,” she said. “But I’m not in a position to necessarily be saying yay and championing a proposal that might still have some troubling unanswered elements to it.”
Here is the full list of proposals, including school closures and boundary changes, the committee considered:
Proposal 1. Move 343 in-boundary students attending Sunshine Elementary to Fairway Elementary. Sunshine would be transitioned to another district use. Passed 45-5.
Proposal 2: Move 224 in-boundary students attending Panther Run Elementary to Chapel Trail Elementary. Panther Run Elementary campus would be transitioned to another district use. Failed 13-37.
Proposal 3: Move 153 in-boundary students attending Palm Cove Elementary to Lakeside Elementary, and another 142 to Pines Lakes Elementary Palm Cove would be transitioned to another district use. Passed 40-9.
Proposal 4: Move all 263 in-boundary students attending North Fork Elementary to Walker Elementary. North Fork would be transitioned to another use. Failed 22-28.
Proposal 4A: Move 155 in-boundary students attending North Fork Elementary to Walker Elementary, 26 to Thurgood Marshall Elementary, 33 to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary and 33 to Croissant Park Elementary. Failed 7-43.
Proposal 5: Reconfigure Coconut Palm Elementary, Dolphin Bay Elementary, Silver Lakes Elementary and Sunset Lakes Elementary as K-8 Schools. Coral Cove, which is scheduled to serve grades K-7 next year, would also include grade 8. Failed 20-30.
Proposal 6: Move all 569 in-boundary students attending Glades Middle to New Renaissance Middle, or parents can choose a K-8 school. Glades Middle would be transitioned to a branch campus of Sheridan Technical College. Failed 7-43.
Proposal 7: Move 75 in-boundary students attending Walter C. Young Middle and living west of I-75 to Silver Trail Middle, and 351 Walter C. Young students living east of I-75 to Pines Collegiate Academy 6-12. Walter C. Young Middle campus would be transitioned to another district use or turned over to the city of Pembroke Pines, which owns the campus. Failed 11-38.
Proposal 7A: Reconfigure Walter C. Young Middle as a third through eighth grade dual language/gifted school serving
southwestern Broward County. Failed 13-36.
Proposal 7B: Move 75 in-boundary students attending Walter C. Young Middle and living west of I-75 to Silver Trail Middle. This would allow 100% of students in the boundary of Silver Palms Elementary to attend Silver Trail Middle. Passed 33-16.
Proposal 8: Combine Plantation Middle into Plantation High as a 6-12 school. The current Plantation Middle boundary would be the sixth to eighth grade boundary, and the current Plantation High boundary would be the boundary for ninth to 12th grade students. Passed 37-12.
Proposal 9: Move all 571 in-boundary students attending Bair Middle to Westpine Middle. Bair would be transitioned to another district use. Failed 12-37.
Proposal 10: Move 191 in-boundary students attending Charles W. Flanagan High in Pembroke Pines and living west of I-75 to West Broward High. This would allow 100% of Silver Trail Middle students to attend Flanagan. Passed 41-8.
Proposal 11: Move 447 in-boundary students attending Hallandale High and living west of I-95 will move to Miramar High. Hallandale High would transition to a four-day week magnet school serving students south of Sunrise Boulevard. Students living in Hallandale Beach would be automatically assigned to the school. Passed 47-2.
Proposal 12: Create a school-within-a-school at Thurgood Marshall Elementary serving third to fifth-grade gifted/dual language students. This program may replace a third to eighth grade gifted program at Parkway Middle. K-5 students living within the Thurgood Marshall Elementary boundary would continue to be assigned to Thurgood Marshall. Passed unanimously.