Broward County board members say district hasn't overbuilt classroom space

From The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Projections show Broward County (Fla) district public schools will have more than 34,800 empty seats during the 2012-2013 school year, but beleaguered board members say the district didn't overbuild, and the numbers don't show the whole picture. They say the district needs a school-by-school review of how classrooms are being used, rather than a school's overall capacity compared with its enrollment.

Earlier...from The Miami Herald: For years, the Broward County (Fla.) school district continued building new schools even after student enrollment began to drop, knowing the state would soon put the brakes on the school system's construction program. Now the district faces the problem of having to shuffle thousands of students to different schools as boundaries are realigned to balance schools with too few and too many students. Broward has about 32,000 more seats than students to fill them. Most underenrolled schools are in the eastern part of the county; several schools in the southwest remain crowded.

NOVEMBER 2008....from The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: After examining the declining number of students in the Broward County (Fla.) school district -- and the number of empty spaces that remain -- the state has recommended against building any additional classrooms, including a long-delayed West Broward high school. The school, known as MMM, exists only on paper. The district has held off on buying property while awaiting the state's survey. Besides MMM, the state also recommended against building a West Broward middle school known as NN, several elementary schools scheduled for years in the future, and about 20 classroom-addition projects.