Broward school closures could expand from 10 to 26 under proposal
South Florida Sun Sentinel | By: Scott Travis | November 3, 2026
A plan to close 10 low-enrolled Broward schools next year has received support from a district boundary committee, but now a new proposal could raise that number to as many as 26. The School Board is scheduled to hold a workshop Wednesday to discuss which schools to shut down as part of its “Redefining Broward County Schools” initiative, and a final vote is currently planned for December. Since August, the number of schools on the closure list has remained 10.
But on Thursday, three days after a boundary committee finished its recommendations, the district released a presentation for the workshop that includes an option to close an additional 16 schools. Superintendent Howard Hepburn isn’t recommending 26 schools, but district staff added it for discussion after the School Board voted down a motion on Oct. 13 that would have limited discussion to 10 schools, spokesman John Sullivan told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The 26-school proposal is being pushed by board member Allen Zeman, who has advocated that closing schools with few students saves money and provides more resources for schools that remain open. The district has closed seven schools over the past two years.
“It is not something anybody supports on balance until they realize that their children are going to a better school, and then all children in Broward County have more resources for our core mission, which is educating students,” Zeman told the Sun Sentinel.
So far, no other School Board members have publicly supported Zeman’s plan, and several have opposed it.
District administrators only asked its School Boundary Committee to consider closing 10 schools during an Oct. 26 meeting.
The committee supported district recommendations to close nine schools: Banyan Elementary in Sunrise, Coral Springs Elementary, Silver Lakes Elementary in Miramar, Dolphin Bay Elementary in Miramar, Lloyd Estates Elementary in Oakland Park, Oakridge Elementary in Hollywood, Forest Glen Middle in Coral Springs, Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke Pines and William Dandy Middle in Fort Lauderdale.
Committee members were also asked which of two low-enrolled Hollywood elementary schools they would prefer to close: Hollywood Park or Sheridan Park. Hepburn initially proposed Hollywood Park, but School Board members asked for a second option. The committee recommended keeping Hollywood Park open and closing Sheridan Park.
The 10 school closings would help the district reduce its inventory of about 60,000 empty seats by about 9,000 and could save the district between $19.7 million to $22.5 million, according to the presentation for Wednesday’s workshop.
The presentation also includes the list of 26 schools as part of an appendix. This includes the 10 schools on the superintendent’s initial list plus 16 more with adjacent capacity at one or two nearby schools to accommodate affected students.
The additional schools include 10 elementary schools: Atlantic West in Margate, Collins in Dania Beach, Deerfield Park in Deerfield Beach, James S. Hunt in Coral Springs, Larkdale in Lauderhill, Morrow in North Lauderdale, Nob Hill in Sunrise, North Side in Fort Lauderdale, Pasadena Lakes in Pembroke Pines and Watkins in Pembroke Park.
The list also includes six middle schools that could be considered: Bair in Sunrise, Crystal Lake in Pompano Beach, McNicol in Hollywood, New Renaissance in Miramar, Olsen Middle in Dania Beach and Silver Lakes in North Lauderdale. No high schools were on the list.
Zeman told the Sun Sentinel that enrollment in Broward schools is expected to continue to decline over the next few years due to affordability concerns, declining birth rates and stricter immigration policies. He said it’s only a matter of time before the additional 16 low-enrolled schools will have to close, and he would prefer not to delay.
“They’re the next ones that are under the microscope for next year,” Zeman said.
If the board opts to shut down 26 schools, Zeman said he would support taking a year off from what has become an annual effort to close schools.
While several other board members have voiced support for taking a year off, none have publicly said they support Zeman’s 26-school proposal. Some board members say the district has already had numerous town hall meetings, where communities were told the plan was to close 10 schools.
The presentation for Wednesday’s workshop said that due to district policy, “Any additional schools added must have community input opportunities that are consistent with this year’s process. Any additional schools added would necessitate a pause and reset of this year’s timeline.”
The deadline for parents to enroll their children in schools other than their zoned school, which is currently mid-January, would have to be extended until late February or early March if more schools are added, the presentation states.
“If we’re going to add schools to the list, that’s really damaging our relationships with the community,” School Board Chairwoman Sarah Leonardi told the Sun Sentinel. “We wouldn’t be able to get substantial community feedback about those closures. We would be going back on what we said the process was going to be in the first place.”
The idea of adding schools to the list frustrates Jacqui Luscombe, a boundary committee member who chairs the district’s ESE Advisory Council, which advocates for students with special needs. She has voiced concern about closing schools piecemeal rather than looking at the needs of the district as a whole.
Luscombe also said that the attendance zones the committee recommended for students affected by school closures may have to change again.
“Now if there are going to be more schools, then that might actually make some of our considerations moot,” Luscombe told the Sun Sentinel.
Jacqui Luscombe, chair of the ESE Advisory Council, speaks during a recent district boundary committee meeting at Nova Middle School in Davie.
Although the full list of potential closures wasn’t made public until this week, Zeman has been talking about closing 26 schools for several months. As a result, Leonardi brought a motion to the Oct. 13 School Board meeting asking to limit closures to just 10 for this year. Six of nine board members were present for that vote, and they deadlocked 3-3 on Leonardi’s request, causing it to fail.
One issue that could shape Wednesday’s discussion is the result of a referendum on Tuesday’s ballot. Voters are being asked whether they support continuing a tax of one mill, or $100 per $100,000 in assessed property, to fund teacher supplements as well as safety, security and mental health initiatives.
The school district would lose about $358 million if the referendum fails, officials say.
“If the referendum doesn’t pass, we’re probably going to have an option to close more than 26 schools,” Zeman told the Sun Sentinel. “From a budget perspective, it’s catastrophic.”
In addition to financial demands, there are also good academic reasons to shut down more schools, Zeman told the Sun Sentinel. He said smaller schools aren’t able to support the same number of electives and special classes as larger schools, depriving students of a well-rounded education.
The reasoning makes sense to Alexandria Chavez, a parent at Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke Pines, who serves on the boundary committee. At the Oct. 26 meeting, she supported closing the school and moving students to Charles Flanagan High, which would be converted into a 6-12 school.
“Because of the budget and enrollment declining, our school between last year and this year went from having 10 electives to two: P.E. and band,” Chavez told the committee. “I love Walter C., but I don’t want to stay open if it’s going to be this bare-bones.”
