After chaotic meeting, Broward schools still no closer to plan on school closings
When the Broward School Board hired Superintendent Peter Licata last July, he knew one of his toughest tasks would be to quickly downsize Broward County Public Schools due to low student enrollment. When he suddenly stepped down from his job on Tuesday, only 10 months later, the school district he left behind didn’t seem to be succeeding in that goal.
With about 60 days to go before their June 18 deadline to recommend to the School Board specific plans to fix the issue, school district officials still haven’t named any specific plans for any specific schools. That concerned some School Board members during the board meeting Tuesday.
“I feel like I’m getting slow-rolled. We said we were going to do five; we’re nowhere near the decision point where we need to be,” said Board Member Allen Zeman.
“This is very frustrating to me,” he later added.
Board Member Daniel Foganholi echoed that sentiment: “I’m not very optimistic about this whole thing as much as I was, or at least as when we started,” he said. “I like to be the optimistic one, the happy-go-lucky one but I’m not feeling it right now.”
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“We need to put it on the fast pass,” Board Member Nora Rupert said.
Last summer, when they hired him, the School Board Members asked former Superintendent Peter Licata to identify five schools to close or re-purpose by 2025, because a lack of students was costing the school district millions of dollars. Licata had told the board he’d provide a recommendation so they could vote in June.
During the district’s last discussion on school closings on March 20, Licata told the board he would propose specific actions on Tuesday. At that meeting in March he said that school conditions and low enrollment were two of the most important factors to consider. But when Tuesday’s meeting began, he presented no plan. Instead he announced he needed to retire because of health reasons.
His replacement, newly named Superintendent Howard Hepburn, asked Alan Strauss, the school district’s task-assigned chief strategy and innovation officer, to update the board on the process. And instead of detailing specific plans or schools, he named zones the district will further study.
READ MORE: After 10 months, Broward Schools superintendent to retire. Board replaces him immediately
District staff picked some ‘innovation zones’
Strauss and Hepburn are now at the helm of the downsizing initiative, both by default.
Hepburn replaced Licata on Tuesday.
Strauss, who’s also the district’s south regional superintendent, got “task-assigned” or temporarily assigned to the strategy and innovation role after Zoie Saunders abruptly left the school district in March. Saunders lasted four months in her position as chief strategy and innovation officer.
Still, on Tuesday, Strauss gave a 12-slide presentation on the topic and said district officials picked some innovation zones and plan to zero in on them for the June vote. The district defines innovation zones as groups of elementary, middle and high schools in the same geographic areas that can collaborate to better serve students as they grow. They named each zone after the high school located there.
Strauss said officials identified 12 of the district’s 28 innovation zones, and then grouped them into five clusters and assigned a color to each cluster. He showed illustrations of each cluster and said officials will organize community meetings in each cluster in the coming weeks to get input.
He listed the options for each cluster, which include changing schools’ grade levels, change school boundaries and closing schools. But specified that not every school in each zone is under consideration.
Strauss also shared a list of eight properties that district officials are considering for re-purposing, selling or leasing, including the School Board headquarters in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
READ MORE: Which Broward schools may be at risk of closing? Enrollment numbers may provide answers
After Strauss’s presentation, Board Member Sarah Leonardi asked Strauss to explain how the district picked the zones.
“I think it’s important that we’re transparent about the conversations that were had in the selection of these zones. Could you walk me through, for instance, the Everglade zone was chosen but Miramar High wasn’t?”
“Otherwise people just think we chose these zones for not good reasons,” she added.
Board members question color-coded map for possible school closures
Strauss said that to come up with the zones, district staff considered both quantitative data like enrollment trends, and qualitative data like community feedback, historical context and equity considerations. He said he wasn’t prepared to speak about specific zones or schools’ decision though, and that he didn’t want to speak on Licata’s behalf.
“This does not help our case for building trust in the community,” Leonardi said. “I would really like a detailed explanation as much as possible as to why these zones were chosen. It is important for the public to have access to that information.”
Zeman also worried about a lack of facts.
READ MORE: Will any high schools in Broward close? Superintendent discusses after latest meeting
“This is not an analysis. This is a picture ... This is insufficient,” he said. “We don’t have spreadsheets. We don’t have an analytical reason to select these innovation zones. We don’t have a story to tell the public.”
Hepburn said he would provide more information to the board and to the public to increase transparency.
Board Member Jeff Holness also called for speediness from Hepburn, criticizing the district’s process so far as “too complicated” and “too slow.”
“Let’s be courageous; let’s be bold. Bring five to ten schools to us and what the considerations are for these schools, and let’s talk about it. Let’s take that to the community, and let the community talk about it. Then let’s bring it back and vote on it.”
“I am not sure why we’re moving like a diesel truck,” he added. “I want to see more of a Ferrari.”
