A sea of red protests school boundary changes in Cooper City

Several hundred Cooper City parents came out in a sea of red to protest the planned boundary changes that could send Pioneer

Middle Students to Pines Middle or Driftwood Middle. The Broward County Public Schools hosted its first public community input meeting on the boundary changes that are heavily affecting schools in Cooper City, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs and Parkland, at least for these changes. Click to see previous story about boundary changes with a map.

“These major boundary changes will disrupt the education of these children,” said Cooper City Mayor Debbie Eisenberg, saying she was speaking for hundreds of constituents, and urged the school officials to work with the neighborhoods to reduce the impact. “I ask the school board, administrators, work with the municipalities and county and promote the general well-being of the child.”

Many parents in the audience were concerned that the changes would disrupt their neighborhood, break up community cohesion and send kids to school without a support group of friends, family and others they already know.

According to the proposals, the first option to shift Cooper City children to Pines Middles would impact close to 500 children currently slated to attend Pioneer Middle. Option B shifts the same amount of students, but primarily to Driftwood Middle.

“They are not numbers or chess pieces to move because of poor decisions by the board—we want to stay local in Cooper City,” said a parent Doug Bartel. “Who benefits from the move? Not the students.”

Other parents mentioned concerns about mismanagement of schools and misappropriation of funds, and complained funds had been set aside to add buildings to Pioneer Middle, but never utilized.

“We all carefully slsected our homes, as part of the American dream,” said Felicia Anderson, adding that $25 supposedly slated for Pioneer for a renovation was never used. “Most of us ride by the school, to or from—it’s an integral part of the community—an extension. And it feels like we’re pawns—and students are going to be moved all around Broward County like a jigsaw puzzle. And parents be involved because it will be too far away.

To the applause and cheers of the large crowd, Anderson dumped a pile of petitions on the school board staff who explained that the changes stemmed from three major decisions.

According to school staff, the state school board plant survey took away all future building projects, saying Broward County could not build any more capacity even if they had the money and the plans—only if the “shovel was already in the sand.”

Also, the class size reductions mandated by state law are impacting the schools, particularly in Cooper City which are predominantly the ones over capacity. There is also a state mandate called level or service or ILA – inter local agreement decided on my local municipalities (75 percent must agree to changes) about the number of students and by 2012, Broward Schools are supposedly required to meet certain standards regarding the number of students at a school, and portables, according to staff cannot be used to meet the demand of LOS at a school.

Charles Cutler, who has two children at Pioneer Middle said he was against busing the children, against going to school out of the neighborhood, like many of the other parents, some who threatened to leave the community.

“We have spent a lifetime building a community—and this will rip apart ties critical to a community,” he said to more applause and cheers.

Another resident, Heidi, expressed concerns about the impact on the local religious community, and said a lawsuit could be filed based on the lack of religious freedom because many of the parents relied on the religious institutions, particularly the Jewish Community Center, to watch the children after school, and said if students were being bused around, they might not go to the JCC, which could severely impact it, and cause it to close, closing access to religious programming for the children.

Tom Canterbury, who didn’t speak, but did attend the meeting, said afterwards that he doesn’t agree with the recommendations.

“Why did we move here? We pay Cooper City taxes which are higher than many areas for the schools here,” he said. “Mayor Eisenberg has some great solutions—and they’re using the state to pass the blame—I don’t know that we can trust the Broward School Board.”

For Judy Jakovich, a single mom, their would be a hardship.

“It would make it hard if he needed to go on a bus to a different school—I won’t have the support of the community, my neighbors and after school,” she said, adding that as a single mom of a special needs child, that was especially important to her. “Knowing he was going to Pioneer is the reason I purchased, even though it’s hard paying the taxes on a single salary.

And while all the school boundaries were discussed, this one drew the most ire from parents. Mayor Peter Bober and Commissioner Heidi O’Sheehan from Hollywood also expressed concerns about the New School C in Hollywood regarding bringing in other students outside the neighborhood.

“The residents of the City of Hollywood lost a park so that a school could be built—and (these options) have 150 choice students or none at all,” said Bober, who, along with O’Sheehan, reminded the school board that the city owned a portion of the land the school was on, “and we need more seats to benefit Hollywood residents in this neighborhood.”

Additional meetings are planned to discuss the school boundary changes on Nov. 19, 7 p.m. also at McArthur High School, 6501 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Two more are scheduled for Taravella High School, 10600 Riverside Drive, Coral Springs, for Nov. 20 at 9 a.m. and Nov. 23 at 7 p.m.

Boundary recommendations are can be viewed from the School Boundaries Web site at: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/schoolboundaries

If you need additional information please telephone the School Boundaries Department at (754) 321-2480.

Current boundaries - click for larger image.