Forest Glen Middle spared from district’s plan to shutter underenrolled schools

After a meeting that lasted over five hours, Broward County school board members decided to take Forest Glen Middle School off the list of possible Coral Springs schools to close.

The district had previously singled out repurposing or closing Forest Glen and redistributing those students to other local schools as one way to address low enrollment at several Coral Springs middle schools, the Coral Springs News reported.

During the Oct. 7 meeting and workshop that marked the second phase of the Redefining Our Schools initiative, District 4 school board member Lori Alhadeff opposed closing Forest Glen, brought up that while Forest Glen is considered underenrolled — it’s at 57.5% capacity this school year — 19 out of 36 other middle schools in the district are even more underenrolled.

“I think that it’s ridiculous that we would even be thinking about potentially closing Forest Glen Middle School when compared to the other middle schools within the district, they are at a higher level than 19 other middle schools,” she said.

After community members expressed concerns about the impact on Forest Glen students and disruption of high school feeder patterns if the students were to be shuffled to other schools, Alhadeff suggested possibly adding an arts magnet program or bringing in additional programs that would incite more students to enroll.

“So granted, can we look to add more programming, more innovation, absolutely yes, would love to see that,” she said.

School board members Jeff Holness and Allen Zeman argued in favor of closing Forest Glen, with Zeman saying they have “to make bold moves.”

“I understand that no one would want to see their schools close, but I also understand that if we don’t act, others will act,” Holness said. “So I am supportive for that reason, because if we don’t do something, the state is going to do something.”

The school also has a high Facility Index Cost of 29%, higher than the other schools in the area, indicating it’s in need of repairs and approaching the end of its useful lifespan as a facility.

But by the end of the meeting, a majority of school board members didn’t indicate interest in moving forward with the conversation to close Forest Glen and took it off the list. Six schools remain in the mix for possible changes.

This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 1:31 PM.