A Coral Springs parent is asking the Broward County School Board to reconsider its proposal to close Forest Glen Middle School, arguing the campus still has strong programs and room for more students. Jennifer Sookhoo wrote the commentary, published by Coral Springs Talk.
Sookhoo said the school’s ASCEND program offers an Honors TV Production class to select eighth graders at Coral Springs High School during zero period. Parents drive students there and then take them on to Forest Glen, because the district does not provide transportation for that schedule. She also pointed to eight students chosen for this year’s All-State Chorus, a number she said has been exceeded only once in the 15 years of her children’s teacher’s tenure, and one student named to the All-State Middle School Honor Band.
Sookhoo said the school qualified for a Florida Music Education Association enrollment award, and that no Broward school has won it since 2008. She also listed gardening, culinary, dance, ceramics and crochet offerings that she said do not appear on the district’s Redefining Schools fact sheet.
On capacity, she said the 1900 building now houses staff from secondary and elementary learning, which she said raises the school’s capacity by 475 seats and its utilization to 64.2 percent, not 45.1 percent. She asked how many other Broward middle schools below that level are not on the closure list.
Sookhoo argued that about 204 students living in the Forest Glen boundary attend other district schools, and that the school is a neighborhood campus where most students walk, bike or are driven. The board has not yet acted on the proposal in the commentary.
