FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — More changes are coming to Broward County Public Schools.
After nearly eight hours of discussion and motions to amend, the Broward County School Board voted to go ahead with a new organizational chart that would lay off about 300 staff members in various roles and eliminate 700 vacant positions.
Those moves would save the district more than $50 million.
“It’s a massive amount of layoffs,” said District 2 Board Member Rebecca Thompson. “No one‘s ever going to be completely happy, but I think at the end of the day, we made a plan that’s going to make us a more stable school system.”
District 6 Board Member Adam Cervera was one of two members to vote against it.
“This is going to affect our students, unfortunately, I believe in a very negative way,” he said.
Some of the positions cut include social workers, student support instruction specialists and mental health professionals.
“People that have direct interaction with our students on a day-to-day basis, as opposed to starting from the top, in this district, and getting rid of some of the bloat,” said Cervera.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn said the approved plan also includes substantial cuts to higher level positions.
“The highest percentage of cuts proportionally were actually central office personnel, especially directors and above our senior level positions, that was 16%,” said Hepburn.
He says those in eliminated positions could still fill other vacancies within the district, such as classroom teachers and other positions with high turnover.
“We want to make sure we prioritize our support to make sure any staff that’s impacted is transitioned well,” Hepburn said.
Some board members expressed relief to now being able to move on to other district challenges, like getting students back in public schools.
“I just want it to be within our consciousness that we are equally focusing on increasing student enrollment,” District 5 Board Member Jeff Holness.
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