Today's blog post is a follow-up to my blog post of WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2023, titled,
Torey Alston's call for "Major reform" now by the Broward County School Board is 100% correct -and 100% long overdue
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/torey-alstons-call-for-major-reform-now.html
I also tweeted about that post here, https://x.com/hbbtruth/status/1729940297038078417?s=20
This was me on Twitter this past Sunday afternoon, plus the predicate tweets from BCPSCanDoBetter and Alexander Russo highlighting the Chicago Sun-Times account of what happened when the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) closed 50 schools throughout the nation's third-largest city.
Chicago Sun-Times
To report on the impact of Chicago’s mass school closings, we turned to neighborhood residents.
While City Hall and Chicago Public Schools put roadblocks in the way of reporting for the Sun-Times and WBEZ series, people who lived near the closed schools opened up with their stories.
By Lauren FitzPatrick, December 28, 2023, 10:00am EST
Will be interested to see who among SE #Broward elected officials/candidates fm #HollywoodFL #HallandaleBeach participate @ 3rd of 3 #BCPS' mtgs re under-enrolled schools Thurs. @ Flanagan HS @ 6 pm. Spies tell me few of Usual Suspects @ either City Hall attended. 
Re Thursday's important mtg. re under-enrolled Broward schools, Supt.'s plan to close school/sell property of 5 within a year, with 3 in SE Broward on possible chopping block because they are less than 70% capacity: Hallandale High School, McNicol Middle School and Hollywood Central Elementary School.
There's a good but-not-perfect graph that was on a popular Broward public policy Facebook page that showed reasons that some Broward parents give for why they have -or may- pull their kids from the system.
The official number given for so-called "lost" BCPS kids in the past 20 years is 58,000, but I suspect it is considerably higher since the very people who were NOT polled actually are the ones I'd like most to hear from in such a poll to know the truth: parents who fled Broward county ENTIRELY, and did not know of the poll.
Concerned Citizens of Broward County
%20John%20Daly%20Sr.%20-%20Just%20a%20reminder%20why%20they%20are%20leaving.%20-%20Facebook_%20-%20www.facebook.com.png)
Though this particular Facebook page is much more useful than most things online that have a South Florida emphasis, the truth is that is very noticeable that at certain times of the week -say on Sunday mornings and around midnight on weeknights Monday thru Thursday- it tends to have indignant and angry posts that are VERY heavily weighed and biased towards the long term interests and goals of the Broward Democratic Party and its activist allies, principally, teachers and their union friends, the Broward Teachers Union -the BTU.
The BTU expects that all Broward School Board candidates it endorses and who get elected to be faithful puppets and to always think as exactly as they are told, especially regarding salaries and pay raises.
That is, they believe that the answer to every problem in the school system, including why has Broward County lost 58,000 students over the past 20 years, is because teachers were not paid enough. Which is preposterous of course.
You can see for yourself below how their comments condescendingly dismiss all parents answers to simple questions about why they pulled/may pull their kids from the BCPS system, IF the answer isn't simply giving more $ to teachers.
We all know that parents in Broward County are NOT removing their children from the public schools and voting with their wallets/purses and feet by moving simply because of the level of salary individual teachers earn each year. Especially in a county where because of the efforts of Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature, the starting salary of a teacher in Broward County is $50,000, plus benefits, regardless of how poorly a teacher they may prove to be in their first year.
Here are the responses to the graph above, which make my larger point.
%20John%20Daly%20Sr.%20-%20Just%20a%20reminder%20why%20they%20are%20leaving.%20-%20Facebook_%20-%20www.facebook.com.png)
Reality = Broward taxpayers interested in both solid academic improvement and financial efficiencies KNOW BCPS buildings and land WILL be sold, so the belief among self-serving, politically- driven #BTU and its members that honestly think that the number of teachers will or should remain the same is... DELUSIONAL.
I'm NOT a fan of BTU's B.S.
As for tonight, I'm out-of-town, so I will NOT be able to attend the meeting in Pembroke Pines at Flanagan, the HS that my nephew graduated from 20 years ago.
Miami Herald
Broward superintendent plans to close - or re-purpose - 5 public schoolsFebruary 4, 2024
Jimena Tavel; Staff Writer
About four years ago, Walnite Denis moved from Miami Gardens to Pembroke Pines for her daughters.
"I moved to Broward to make sure they go to a good school," the Haitian immigrant said.
Her eldest now attends Pines Middle School at 200 Douglas Rd., and her youngest goes to Palm Cove Elementary School at 11601 Washington St. They're both gifted students.
She loves their schools, so she raised her eyebrows in surprise when she found out this week that one of them, Pines Middle, is one of the 67 most under-enrolled public schools in Broward County, possibly meaning the school district could close it or re-purpose it in coming months. Currently, Pines Middle has the capacity for 1,769 students, but it's missing 1,159 students - thus operating at a measly 34.5% of capacity.
Denis is exactly the type of person Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata wants to meet as he and his administration embark on one of the most challenging missions the school district has faced in years: closing or re-purposing at least five out of a total 239 schools in the 2025-2026 school year. Broward Schools is currently missing about 51,000 students, and the projections are bleak.
In total, 67 out of the total 239 schools in Broward - or 28% - are operating at 70% of their capacity or less.
"If you ask superintendents around the country, it's something they never want to do. It's incredibly challenging. But I can't look at it negatively; I want to look at it as an opportunity," Licata told the Herald in a recent interview. "It may not seem like an opportunity, but it is one. Remember, if we're spending money on things we don't have - like students - it takes away from teachers and bus drivers and cafeteria workers and others."
To hear opinions from parents, students, employees, business owners and others, the Broward school district will hold three town halls this month, open to anyone in the community:
6 p.m. Thursday at the Fort Lauderdale High School at 1600 NE 4th Ave. in Fort Lauderdale
6 p.m. Feb. 15 at the J.P. Taravella High School at 10600 Riverside Dr. in Coral Springs
6 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Charles W. Flanagan High School at 12800 Taft St. in Pembroke Pines
All the meeting dates are Thursdays, and the meetings will be live-streamed at www.becon.tv/redefining. The school district will also put out surveys to gather input.
Why are students leaving, and what are the options?
If you ask the top official at the Broward school district why families are fleeing his public schools, he will point to myriad reasons - and none for certain at the same time. Most leave from kindergarten to third grade, or from sixth to eighth grade, he said.
Families could have pulled students because they have opted for home-schooling instead, switched to charter or private schools, or moved out of the county or state because of the rising cost of living.
They could've also done it because they were seeking a specific magnet program at another school, because they disliked the staff or because that school's state-granted grade fell.
The county's shrinking birth rate, controversial state politics and the lack of families moving to Broward could also be triggering it.
All of that could be affecting the enrollment at Broward Public Schools, but he won't know for sure until he speaks to the people directly involved, he said.
That's why he refuses to put out a list of schools he's considering for possible changes, because he wants to keep an open mind, he said.
"There is no written list. There will be none. We all have something in our heads. We've looked at schools. But if we do that we've already tanked the process," he said.
He also wants to keep his options open, he said. For Licata, "close" or "re-purpose" aren't the only changes he could implement.
The district could also combine two under-enrolled schools to create an at-capacity elementary school or a K-8 center or 6-12 center.
The district could convert part of a school to provide another service, like a technical education or special education, medical or dental health care, workforce training, youth programming or recreational activities.
It could also lease or sell a property to address other needs, like affordable housing for underpaid teachers and others.
And it could also change the school attendance zone by adding or removing neighborhoods assigned to a specific school.
If a school does close, the district will reassign students to another.
Bargaining agreements with teachers and other groups will mandate what happens to the employees of a school that closes; they would be likely to fill in the gaps at other schools or follow students if schools are combines.
To decide what to do ultimately, Licata intends to rely on data - data like the list of the 67 under-enrolled schools using less than 70% of their capacity, enrollment numbers for surrounding private and charter schools, enrollment projections, academic performance and facilities' status.
The timeline, sensitivity the superintendent foresees
Because of two controversial previous moves since the summer, Licata said he wants to get this right.
In August, Broward Schoolsreversed a decision to require all students to use only clear backpacks after people protested it. Similarly, in December, the Broward School Board killed a proposal to start its own police force after the public strongly rejected it.
That's why with the "re-defining" of schools, as he calls it, Licata says he wants to be intentional. He's allotting about 18 months for the process to play out, keeping in mind, he said, that it will be a sensitive topic because it may involve changing historical facilities, boundaries and family traditions.
Alongside the February town halls, Licata will gather with city mayors and managers, county commissioners and other public officials to get their feedback.
He will also reach out to leaders of places of worship.
"Places of worship are very important for communities. They're places where you can get authentic feedback. And a lot of the traditions in history exist in places of worship, and in this county, there are a lot of traditions, and historical names and facilities that we really want to make sure we respect as we move through," Licata said. "We can't just go into neighborhoods, and tell them, 'Yeah, we own the property.' Everyone owns the property, so we want to be very sensitive to the community. That's why we want to listen to them."
On March 20, Licata plans to meet with the Broward School Board to get more direction. He also scheduled another board workshop for May 14.
He doesn't "foresee" taking any decision that affects students in the 2024-2025 school year, he said. Instead, he said the district will focus on selling excess land and, if needed, changing boundary limits, which he's "99.9%" sure he'll need to do.
In the 2025-2026 school year, the district would make changes affecting at least five schools, which he said could be painful.
"The schools belong to the community, and they're historical places," Licata said. "If all of a sudden we say, 'Hey, we're closing this school,' people go, 'Wait a minute, I went here. My mother went here. My kids go here. That's where they're supposed to go; how could you do this?' That's the sensitive part of it."
"We learned a lot when we brought up the potential police force," he added. "We learned we need to communicate even more. So our goal is that nobody, nobody, in 18 months is able to say, 'I didn't know about this.'"
Miami Herald
'Tough conversations': Broward school district hosts its first input event on school changes
Jimena Tavel, Staff Writer
February 12, 2024
While scrolling social media Wednesday night, Cathy Curry, 61, saw a list of the most under-enrolled schools in Broward County Public Schools and one caught her eye: her alma mater Hallandale High School, the same majority-Black school that, in 1974, she and her mother marched in protest to get the district to open.
She saw that the district could close it because it's operating at only 64% of its capacity. She panicked.
"I was so hurt I couldn't sleep," Curry, who graduated from the high school in 1980, told the Miami Herald.
The following day, on Thursday, she decided to attend a district event on the topic at Fort Lauderdale High School. That was the first of three events that Broward school district officials have planned to seek community input on a plan to close or repurpose at least five out of the district's total of 239 schools in the 2025-2026 school year. They say the district must make changes because it has lost about 58,000 students in the past 20 years.
Instead of holding a traditional town hall Thursday, district officials held small-group conversations.
First, Superintendent of Broward Public Schools Peter Licata briefly explained why the district needs to affect at least five schools. Then officials split the roughly 150 in-person attendees inside the school's auditorium - and the about 200 who tuned in to the live stream online - into eight groups and directed them to different areas such as classrooms and the cafeteria. They assigned a facilitator to lead and survey each group using an artificial intelligence platform called ThoughtExchange.
Facilitators asked each group two questions using ThoughtExchange and then led a discussion about all of the groups' answers, which they could see and rate up or down online.
The first was, "When the District decides to close or combine schools, what should we think about the most. What considerations are most important and why?"
Some of the answers included bus schedules and transportation concerns, the well-being of children, maintaining or improving the quality of the education, increasing targeted programs for specific careers in the future, the overall fiscal impact to the district and the classroom sizes.
The second question was, "How can we make changing schools a positive experience for students, teachers, and the community to help our schools become the best they can be?"
Those answers featured statements like "infrastructure is key," "increasing mental health for students," and "pay the teachers a decent wage."
The first question upset Curry.
"To see that felt like the decision is already made, and it's disingenuous to gather the community here," she said.
Zoie Saunders, the district's chief strategy and innovation officer, was facilitating Curry's group and apologized for that. She later told the Herald that the original question was too long and in the editing process, it lost some clarity.
"I completely acknowledged that was a mistake," Saunders said. "We'll try to wordsmith that question for the future."
Overall, Licata, who walked in and out of all of the group settings, told the Herald after the event that he thought it had gone well.
"I thought tonight was pretty good," he said. "We had some really good conversations; we had some really tough conversations. ... It was the first night. We're going to redirect some things, fix some things. We are going to address what people have said. We're listening."
Complaints with format, use of AI
Others in Curry's group raised concerns about the district's logistics for the event.
Narnike Pierre Grant, the mother of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School freshman and the chair of the school district's diversity committee, said she disliked being divided into small groups.
"I wasn't happy with the format. I don't think it was conducive for the people in this district," said Pierre Grant. "When they were advertising it, they made it feel like a town hall, and that's not what it was. It was hard for people who aren't technologically savvy."
In response, Licata said the district never called the event a "town hall meeting." The official district web page and the flyer describe the events as "Community Conversations." But he acknowledged that the district can hammer that point more in the future.
Overall, he said he understands that there's a history of mistrust in the school district and that that might affect some perspectives.
"We know we have to build trust. This is new to this district, and I'm new to this district. It will take time," he said.
Similarly to Pierre Grant, one of the teachers who attended Thursday, Erica Hansinger from Western High School in Davie, felt that the district could have surveyed people at home instead of in person. And that the use of AI didn't foster "deep, raw conversations."
After the group members answered the two questions, they got to up-vote or down-vote other attendees' ideas. At the end, the platform produced a "summary" with conclusions about what the people said, which the facilitator read out loud.
"That's not the way to engage the community," said Hansinger, who's been teaching for 20 years. "I was baffled. It was bizarre."
After the group stopped looking down at their devices in Hansinger and Pierre Grant's group, they started chatting. A woman shared that she had experienced trauma back in 1995 when the district rezoned some schools and she lost all of her friends; she said she didn't want her own children to experience that, too.
"Her story touched me," Hansinger said, pointing out that the woman wouldn't have been able to share that emotion and those details online on ThoughtExchange and that the format possibly hindered others from sharing their own tales.
In response to that, Saunders said the district decided to use the platform to collect more data and spark ideas. She said that it's not over-relying on its results, as it will also consider other factors when deciding what schools to change: factors including enrollment, neighborhood demographics and the condition of each facility.
The next two district events will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday at the J.P. Taravella High School at 10600 Riverside Dr. in Coral Springs and at 6 p.m. Feb. 22, which is also a Thursday, at the Charles W. Flanagan High School at 12800 Taft St. in Pembroke Pines.
'Tough conversations': Broward school district hosts its first input event on school changes
Jimena Tavel, Staff Writer
February 12, 2024
While scrolling social media Wednesday night, Cathy Curry, 61, saw a list of the most under-enrolled schools in Broward County Public Schools and one caught her eye: her alma mater Hallandale High School, the same majority-Black school that, in 1974, she and her mother marched in protest to get the district to open.
She saw that the district could close it because it's operating at only 64% of its capacity. She panicked.
"I was so hurt I couldn't sleep," Curry, who graduated from the high school in 1980, told the Miami Herald.
The following day, on Thursday, she decided to attend a district event on the topic at Fort Lauderdale High School. That was the first of three events that Broward school district officials have planned to seek community input on a plan to close or repurpose at least five out of the district's total of 239 schools in the 2025-2026 school year. They say the district must make changes because it has lost about 58,000 students in the past 20 years.
Instead of holding a traditional town hall Thursday, district officials held small-group conversations.
First, Superintendent of Broward Public Schools Peter Licata briefly explained why the district needs to affect at least five schools. Then officials split the roughly 150 in-person attendees inside the school's auditorium - and the about 200 who tuned in to the live stream online - into eight groups and directed them to different areas such as classrooms and the cafeteria. They assigned a facilitator to lead and survey each group using an artificial intelligence platform called ThoughtExchange.
Facilitators asked each group two questions using ThoughtExchange and then led a discussion about all of the groups' answers, which they could see and rate up or down online.
The first was, "When the District decides to close or combine schools, what should we think about the most. What considerations are most important and why?"
Some of the answers included bus schedules and transportation concerns, the well-being of children, maintaining or improving the quality of the education, increasing targeted programs for specific careers in the future, the overall fiscal impact to the district and the classroom sizes.
The second question was, "How can we make changing schools a positive experience for students, teachers, and the community to help our schools become the best they can be?"
Those answers featured statements like "infrastructure is key," "increasing mental health for students," and "pay the teachers a decent wage."
The first question upset Curry.
"To see that felt like the decision is already made, and it's disingenuous to gather the community here," she said.
Zoie Saunders, the district's chief strategy and innovation officer, was facilitating Curry's group and apologized for that. She later told the Herald that the original question was too long and in the editing process, it lost some clarity.
"I completely acknowledged that was a mistake," Saunders said. "We'll try to wordsmith that question for the future."
Overall, Licata, who walked in and out of all of the group settings, told the Herald after the event that he thought it had gone well.
"I thought tonight was pretty good," he said. "We had some really good conversations; we had some really tough conversations. ... It was the first night. We're going to redirect some things, fix some things. We are going to address what people have said. We're listening."
Complaints with format, use of AI
Others in Curry's group raised concerns about the district's logistics for the event.
Narnike Pierre Grant, the mother of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School freshman and the chair of the school district's diversity committee, said she disliked being divided into small groups.
"I wasn't happy with the format. I don't think it was conducive for the people in this district," said Pierre Grant. "When they were advertising it, they made it feel like a town hall, and that's not what it was. It was hard for people who aren't technologically savvy."
In response, Licata said the district never called the event a "town hall meeting." The official district web page and the flyer describe the events as "Community Conversations." But he acknowledged that the district can hammer that point more in the future.
Overall, he said he understands that there's a history of mistrust in the school district and that that might affect some perspectives.
"We know we have to build trust. This is new to this district, and I'm new to this district. It will take time," he said.
Similarly to Pierre Grant, one of the teachers who attended Thursday, Erica Hansinger from Western High School in Davie, felt that the district could have surveyed people at home instead of in person. And that the use of AI didn't foster "deep, raw conversations."
After the group members answered the two questions, they got to up-vote or down-vote other attendees' ideas. At the end, the platform produced a "summary" with conclusions about what the people said, which the facilitator read out loud.
"That's not the way to engage the community," said Hansinger, who's been teaching for 20 years. "I was baffled. It was bizarre."
After the group stopped looking down at their devices in Hansinger and Pierre Grant's group, they started chatting. A woman shared that she had experienced trauma back in 1995 when the district rezoned some schools and she lost all of her friends; she said she didn't want her own children to experience that, too.
"Her story touched me," Hansinger said, pointing out that the woman wouldn't have been able to share that emotion and those details online on ThoughtExchange and that the format possibly hindered others from sharing their own tales.
In response to that, Saunders said the district decided to use the platform to collect more data and spark ideas. She said that it's not over-relying on its results, as it will also consider other factors when deciding what schools to change: factors including enrollment, neighborhood demographics and the condition of each facility.
The next two district events will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday at the J.P. Taravella High School at 10600 Riverside Dr. in Coral Springs and at 6 p.m. Feb. 22, which is also a Thursday, at the Charles W. Flanagan High School at 12800 Taft St. in Pembroke Pines.
Miami Herald
‘Let's look at the root causes': Community weighs in on potential Broward school closures
Jimena Tavel, Miami Herald
February 16, 2024
Anabelle Rivera moved from Miami Shores to Weston in 2021 in hopes that a Broward public school could help her autistic son. She had tried three private schools in Miami-Dade and disliked them all.
"To my surprise it was better," she said. "We are in a much better place now but it took a lot of work. It took a lot of conversations between me as an interested and informed parent and staff."
Then recently, the mom of a seventh grader at Tequesta Trace Middle School found out the Broward school district will close or repurpose at least five schools of its total 239 schools in the 2025-26 school year. She decided to attend a Thursday community meeting hosted by the school district to discuss those plans.
Rivera was one of about 75 people who went in person to J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs; about 50 others tuned in online.
The event was the second in a series of three. The first event took place Feb. 8 at Fort Lauderdale High School, and attracted about 150 in person and about 200 others online. The last event is planned for 6 p.m. Feb. 22 at Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.
Like the first event, Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata began Thursday with a presentation in the school's auditorium that explained the district must change because it has lost about 58,000 students in the last 20 years. After, the attendees got divided into five groups and sent to different classrooms.
In the small breakout group that Rivera was in, about 20 people sat in a semicircle. Two facilitators asked questions and led the discussion, using an artificial intelligence surveying program called ThoughtExchange.
They first asked a question about what challenges and opportunities of closing or repurposing some schools.
Rivera, the mother of the autistic son, said she hopes that the district takes the chance to add more resources to students with disabilities like her son. She also said that she has a daughter, a senior at a charter school in Wynwood that focuses on the arts, who has thrived there because she's developed her singing, and Broward public schools should replicate those types of program in all fields.
"I'm hopeful," she said.
A woman said the district will struggle to regain the public's trust, an issue largely rooted in a failed 2014 tax payer-approved $800 million project to fix schools, called the SMART bond.
Another woman said that it would be a problem if people lose their jobs in the process.
Aiykiera Brown, a senior at Millennium Collegiate Academy in Tamarac, said she worried students' mental health would suffer if they were removed from their comfort zones and separated from their friends.
"You could have a lot of students drop out," she said.
Then facilitators repeated the two questions from the first event on ThoughtExhange.
First: "When the District decides to close or combine schools, what should we think about the most. What considerations are most important and why?"
Those answers largely led the group to wonder why students were leaving in the first place. A woman worried that if the district doesn't identify the underlying causes and fix them, repurposing or closing some schools would be a "Band-Aid solution."
"So then the plan is what? To keep closing schools?" she said.
Joi Calderon, the mother of a junior at J.P. Taravella and an eighth grader at Ramblewood Middle in Coral Springs, agreed with that. She wondered if the Broward school district has looked at charter and private schools and analyzed why people are choosing those over the traditional public schools.
"Is it a community thing? Is it a cultural thing? Is it a location thing? I don't know," she said. "But let's look at the root causes, because if not we're going to keep losing students."
Calderon also said the district should set ways to measure success quickly in each of its decisions. Whether the district decides to close a school, combine two under-enrolled schools, convert part of a school to provide another service like a technical education, change the school attendance zone or implement any other idea, the district should monitor how that's going and pivot with agility if needed, she said.
"How are they going to reassess, and how are they going to make decisions to say, ‘Yes, we need to move forward with this' or ‘No, we need to retract it. Let's try this instead?'" she said.
The second question facilitators asked the group — "How can we make changing schools a positive experience for students, teachers, and the community to help our schools become the best they can be?" — elicited some ideas.
A man suggested the school district hold more meetings in low-income neighborhoods to reach people who may have not been able to travel to the three designated locations. Or alternatively, he said, the district could offer free transportation from across the county to the last event.
Another man said he used to work for the school district as a lawn maintenance operator and knows the district owns a lot of land in Broward. He wondered if instead of spending money on constantly cutting grass and maintaining empty lots, the district could sell of lease them.
"You know what 50 acres can go for?" he said. "3.4 million."
‘Let's look at the root causes': Community weighs in on potential Broward school closures
Jimena Tavel, Miami Herald
February 16, 2024
Anabelle Rivera moved from Miami Shores to Weston in 2021 in hopes that a Broward public school could help her autistic son. She had tried three private schools in Miami-Dade and disliked them all.
"To my surprise it was better," she said. "We are in a much better place now but it took a lot of work. It took a lot of conversations between me as an interested and informed parent and staff."
Then recently, the mom of a seventh grader at Tequesta Trace Middle School found out the Broward school district will close or repurpose at least five schools of its total 239 schools in the 2025-26 school year. She decided to attend a Thursday community meeting hosted by the school district to discuss those plans.
Rivera was one of about 75 people who went in person to J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs; about 50 others tuned in online.
The event was the second in a series of three. The first event took place Feb. 8 at Fort Lauderdale High School, and attracted about 150 in person and about 200 others online. The last event is planned for 6 p.m. Feb. 22 at Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.
Like the first event, Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata began Thursday with a presentation in the school's auditorium that explained the district must change because it has lost about 58,000 students in the last 20 years. After, the attendees got divided into five groups and sent to different classrooms.
In the small breakout group that Rivera was in, about 20 people sat in a semicircle. Two facilitators asked questions and led the discussion, using an artificial intelligence surveying program called ThoughtExchange.
They first asked a question about what challenges and opportunities of closing or repurposing some schools.
Rivera, the mother of the autistic son, said she hopes that the district takes the chance to add more resources to students with disabilities like her son. She also said that she has a daughter, a senior at a charter school in Wynwood that focuses on the arts, who has thrived there because she's developed her singing, and Broward public schools should replicate those types of program in all fields.
"I'm hopeful," she said.
A woman said the district will struggle to regain the public's trust, an issue largely rooted in a failed 2014 tax payer-approved $800 million project to fix schools, called the SMART bond.
Another woman said that it would be a problem if people lose their jobs in the process.
Aiykiera Brown, a senior at Millennium Collegiate Academy in Tamarac, said she worried students' mental health would suffer if they were removed from their comfort zones and separated from their friends.
"You could have a lot of students drop out," she said.
Then facilitators repeated the two questions from the first event on ThoughtExhange.
First: "When the District decides to close or combine schools, what should we think about the most. What considerations are most important and why?"
Those answers largely led the group to wonder why students were leaving in the first place. A woman worried that if the district doesn't identify the underlying causes and fix them, repurposing or closing some schools would be a "Band-Aid solution."
"So then the plan is what? To keep closing schools?" she said.
Joi Calderon, the mother of a junior at J.P. Taravella and an eighth grader at Ramblewood Middle in Coral Springs, agreed with that. She wondered if the Broward school district has looked at charter and private schools and analyzed why people are choosing those over the traditional public schools.
"Is it a community thing? Is it a cultural thing? Is it a location thing? I don't know," she said. "But let's look at the root causes, because if not we're going to keep losing students."
Calderon also said the district should set ways to measure success quickly in each of its decisions. Whether the district decides to close a school, combine two under-enrolled schools, convert part of a school to provide another service like a technical education, change the school attendance zone or implement any other idea, the district should monitor how that's going and pivot with agility if needed, she said.
"How are they going to reassess, and how are they going to make decisions to say, ‘Yes, we need to move forward with this' or ‘No, we need to retract it. Let's try this instead?'" she said.
The second question facilitators asked the group — "How can we make changing schools a positive experience for students, teachers, and the community to help our schools become the best they can be?" — elicited some ideas.
A man suggested the school district hold more meetings in low-income neighborhoods to reach people who may have not been able to travel to the three designated locations. Or alternatively, he said, the district could offer free transportation from across the county to the last event.
Another man said he used to work for the school district as a lawn maintenance operator and knows the district owns a lot of land in Broward. He wondered if instead of spending money on constantly cutting grass and maintaining empty lots, the district could sell of lease them.
"You know what 50 acres can go for?" he said. "3.4 million."
Dave
David Bruce Smith
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