Broward schools out for summer, school board chair and teachers assess the school year

During the 2022-23 school year, Broward County Public Schools fired a superintendent, appointed two interim superintendents, and is currently in the process of hiring a permanent leader.

But turmoil at the top doesn’t necessarily impact classrooms, and now that the school year is over and the kids are home for summer vacation, the grownups can assess the current state of affairs.

“Overall, it’s been an exceptional school year, our students thrived,” said school board chair Lori Alhadeff.

However, Alhadeff says there are academic challenges left over from the pandemic.

“You know I still think we are recovering from COVID and from the educational decline that happened in the COVID time, but we are moving forward,” Alhadeff said.

She said testing data shows students are recovering from the COVID slide. I asked her if the state’s new education laws are impacting the classroom experience.

“I think it does become challenging because our students are questioning why would you want to ban a book, they don’t really maybe understand the reasoning behind it, but we want our kids to read as much as possible and embrace books and become diverse learners,” Alhadeff said. 

Teachers have thoughts on everything, and I spoke to several who concur with Kristin Murphy.

“We’ve had an excellent year,” said Murphy, who teaches law at Nova Middle School.

Her competition law team won the national championship, so she knows a thing or two about the constitution and has thoughts on the new state education laws.

“I think they’re more politically motivated than they are student-need motivated," Murphy said. "I think some of the criticism is also politically motivated, so I think we’re losing sight of what everything’s about and that’s the kids."

Dara Hass teaches English at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She’s concerned that the Parents Bill of Rights Law, known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, was expanded from elementary school all the way through the high school grades.

“If we’re limited on what novels we can teach or what stories we can do lessons with, that’s gonna limit us as educators and it’s gonna create a classroom where not every student is represented, and I don’t think that’s fair and it’s a huge concern I have going into lesson planning for next year,” Hass said.

Another controversial law, the state’s new policy on school vouchers, takes effect soon as well.

“We have to bring our A game, we have to really promote the amazing things that are going on here in Broward County Public Schools and present them to families so that they choose us,” Alhadeff said.

Soon every parent, regardless of income, can apply for about $8,000 in taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition, so there will be more competition to attract and retain students in the public schools.

It starts this summer, with the district’s summer enrichment programs designed to give students a constructive, interesting alternative to goofing off all summer. The Summer Experience, as it’s called, is expected to attract 20,000 students.