City Offers 45 Acres for a School: The Broward County School Board is Considering a Proposal to Build a School on Land to Be Donated By Weston
By Jerry Berrios, The Miami Herald
Jun. 11–Weston officials are offering the Broward County School Board 45 acres of wetlands to build a future high school that would ease crowding at Cypress Bay High School.
Financing for High School MMM was moved up three years to the 2006-07 school year budget. When classes begin in August, Cypress Bay High in Weston is slated to have more than 5,400 students, City Manager John Flint said.
It isn’t clear if the School Board will take the city up on its offer. First, potential locations will be evaluated by a site-review committee, which recommends properties to the superintendent. The superintendent then makes recommendations to the School Board members, who make the final decision.
Plus, the School Board would have to convert the wetlands into usable land and buy property elsewhere in Broward County to make up for using the wetlands.
“This is going to be a challenge to accomplish,” Flint said. “Most people create wetlands, not take them away to use them for other purposes.”
Weston owns 2,000 acres of wetlands on South Post Road, immediately south of the Weston Regional Park.
“This is one of the ways to get a school site in the exact location the School Board would like it,” Flint said.
Flint and elected officials discussed the issue last week at the most recent commission meeting. The School Board wouldn’t have to pay for the land.
“What is that going to save the School Board?” Flint asked. “That is going to save the School Board millions upon millions.”
He estimated that the board would save approximately $20 million, enough to build an elementary or middle school in the county.
School Board members Marty Rubinstein and Robin Bartleman, a former Weston commissioner, attended the meeting to support the idea.
“We need to accept this land,” Bartleman said. “We need to make sure this site works.”
The School Board also is looking at a property in Southwest Ranches on the northwest corner of Flamingo Road and Sheridan Street, but Bartleman didn’t favor it. She said kids in Weston and Southwest Ranches would need to drive quite a distance to the high school. Plus, the property costs $19 million and would require two bridges and wetland mitigation.
“It doesn’t work,” Bartleman said.
Rubinstein said the Weston property will help ease crowding at Cypress Bay.
“Folks, this is a home run for everybody,” he said.
Roy Rogers, former vice president of Arvida, the company that developed Weston, also offered his help, saying he would speak with the plan’s critics. “This is an opportunity for me to be part of the present and the future of the city I love,” he said.
Weston Mayor Eric Hersh encouraged residents to call county and state officials to support the site.
He said the School Board came to the city asking for help with Cypress Bay High. “We are responding to that need,” Hersh said.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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