Broward School Board backs closing Coral Springs Elementary as Forest Glen Middle School future remains uncertain
Coral Springs, Florida – The future of several Coral Springs schools remains unsettled after the Broward County School Board spent seven hours Tuesday reviewing possible school closures, consolidations and other changes across the district.
The board backed Superintendent Howard Hepburn’s recommendation to close Coral Springs Elementary, while the situation involving Forest Glen Middle School remained much less certain. Rather than making a decision on Forest Glen, board members agreed to keep the school under consideration while families and district officials examine several possible paths.
The district is expected to make final decisions in December.
Coral Springs Elementary emerged from Tuesday’s workshop in a much clearer position. The school currently has 296 students in a building designed to accommodate 871, leaving a large amount of unused capacity.
Under the district staff recommendation, students currently attending Coral Springs Elementary would be moved to Eagle Ridge Elementary and Parkside Elementary beginning next school year.
Forest Glen Middle, meanwhile, presents a more complicated situation.
The school became the focus of intense community attention last year when parents packed public meetings and successfully fought to keep it open. This year, the school is again part of the district’s long-term planning discussion, but the board stopped short of recommending its immediate closure.
Hepburn’s proposal would close Forest Glen and reorganize the surrounding schools. The plan would turn the elementary schools that feed into Forest Glen into K-6 campuses, while Coral Springs High School would serve students in grades seven through 12.
That proposal does not have the support of Board member Lori Alhadeff, who represents Coral Springs.
“I don’t support that,” Alhadeff said. “I think that we need to go back to the community. I think we need to go to the Coral Springs Commission and have some more conversations and not rush this.”
Her comments reflected a broader push for additional community discussion before the district makes a major decision involving Forest Glen.
The board also discussed another option that would keep the middle school open while expanding its grade levels. Under that proposal, Forest Glen would become a K-8 school.
District officials estimated that converting the campus would cost about $8 million. Much of that expense would go toward adding restrooms inside classrooms to accommodate kindergarten and first-grade students.
Even if approved, the K-8 model would not be ready immediately. The earliest possible opening under that arrangement would be the 2028-29 school year.
There would also be a significant consequence for other schools in the area. Two elementary schools within the Forest Glen feeder pattern would have to close if Forest Glen were converted into a K-8 campus.
The elementary schools currently feeding into Forest Glen include Coral Park Elementary, Forest Hills Elementary, James S. Hunt Elementary and Park Springs Elementary. District officials would eventually have to determine which two schools would close under the K-8 option.
A third possibility discussed Tuesday would have Forest Glen serve students from fifth through eighth grade.
With multiple options still on the table, district officials emphasized that Tuesday’s action did not amount to a decision to shut down Forest Glen.
“The board is not voting today to close Forest Glen,” said Valerie Wanza, the district’s chief strategy and innovation officer. “What the board is voting is to keep Forest Glen in the conversation.”
That distinction is important for families who have followed the issue closely. Forest Glen’s future is now part of a longer process that will include additional information gathering and public discussion.
The district plans to hold a public meeting involving the schools connected to the proposal. That discussion will include the elementary schools, Forest Glen Middle School and Coral Springs High School.
If the board ultimately decides to keep Forest Glen open as a K-8 school, district officials will later identify the two elementary schools that would have to close to make the new arrangement possible.
The uncertainty comes as Broward County Public Schools continues to examine how it uses its facilities and manages enrollment across the district. The board was originally considering a review involving up to 10 schools.
During Tuesday’s workshop, members rejected a proposal to add three additional campuses to the review. The list therefore remains at 10 schools.
For Coral Springs families, the process now moves into another period of waiting. Coral Springs Elementary has a recommendation to close, with its students potentially moving to Eagle Ridge and Parkside next year. Forest Glen, however, remains firmly in the discussion without a final decision.
The board is scheduled to hold another workshop on Sept. 22. By then, district officials are expected to have gathered additional information that could help shape the next stage of the discussion.
For parents and students connected to Forest Glen, the upcoming meetings could be especially important. The district is weighing the cost and timing of a K-8 conversion, the possibility of a fifth-through-eighth-grade model and the superintendent’s proposal to close the middle school and restructure the grades served at nearby campuses.
For now, the board has chosen not to close the door on any of those possibilities.
The final decisions are still months away, with a December vote expected to determine the future of the schools included in the review. Until then, Coral Springs families will have opportunities to make their views known as Broward County officials continue working through one of the district’s most closely watched school planning debates.
