Broward wants new classroom additions, despite empty seats

 

The Broward School District is asking the state for permission to build 226 new classrooms at nine overcrowded western Broward schools -- despite declining enrollment countywide and projections the district will have 34,800 empty seats in the next three years.

The district wants to conduct spot surveys at the nine schools to determine whether classroom additions are justified, said Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter.

The surveys would allow them to build 16 classrooms at Pioneer Middle School in Cooper City; 16 at Glades Middle School in Miramar; 50 at Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston; 26 at Indian Ridge Middle School in Davie; 14 at Silver Trail Middle School in Pembroke Pines; 16 at Tequesta Trace Middle School in Weston; 36 at Cypress Bay High School in Weston; 16 at Everglades High School in Miramar; and 36 at Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.

The district also wants to change the designation on Elementary School C, now under construction in Hollywood, to a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school.

Should it get the go-ahead, the additions would considered for next year's capital budget, which pays for construction and major purchases such as computers and buses. But with the district in budget-cutting mode, the new classrooms could knock out other projects as money gets shifted around.

It's unlikely that the state will agree to let Broward add more classrooms while there are empty desks, said Nick Sakhnovsky, chairman of the school district's Facilities Task Force. The task force's members are examining how the district is using its schools, including the problem of underused schools in the east, he said.

"We're still one district, and we have to start looking at it as one district," Sakhnovsky said.

He also thinks a comprehensive look at boundaries is in order. Classroom additions will take years to build and that won't help the students now sitting in overcrowded schools.

"At best, these construction solutions are taking care of children who are in diapers right now, and that's not good enough," he said.

But Notter said the multimillion-dollar, one-time expense of building a classroom addition is less costly than the recurring expense of busing students to empty seats in eastern schools.

"Instead of again being forced to domino kids from the Everglades to the Ocean... we want to be able to say to the state, 'We need some relief at this school, and we believe this number of classrooms would relieve it,'" he said.

State education officials already have turned down the district's request to build a new middle school in west Broward, saying the district has too many open seats to justify a new school.

The schools where the district wants to add space are among the more crowded. Falcon Cove Middle, for instance, is 76 percent over capacity, while Flanagan High is 35 percent over capacity.

Adding portable classrooms is not an option, Notter said, because the district needs to be in compliance with state growth management laws. And those rules don't allow districts to count portables toward permanent capacity.

But additions don't come cheap. Adding 36 classes at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland cost the district $13.99 million, while an 18-classroom addition just finished at Embassy Creek Elementary School in Cooper City cost $5.97 million, according to district budgets.