Q&A: Broward superintendent on enrollment, AI and the new school year
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Students in Broward County Schools return to the classroom on Monday.
Why it matters: The district opens the school year with six fewer schools as it grapples with a decline in enrollment.
The latest: Ahead of the upcoming school year, Axios spoke with Broward Superintendent Howard Hepburn about the district's challenges, drones, AI and new academic initiatives.
Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What're some of the biggest challenges facing the district?
One of the continuous challenges facing the district is actually declining enrollment. It's a national issue now that we have to face.
- You have to align with budget realities because our budget is based on the number of students in our classrooms.
Q: Speaking of underenrollment and school closures, what's driving the decline?
There are multiple variables. The birth rate has severely declined across the country, so you have fewer kindergarten students entering schools.
- Affordability in very large urban areas, especially in the Tri-county area. The entry point to own a home in South Florida is so high that they're choosing to go other places if they have a family, school-age kids and child care.
- Recent immigration policies ... newcomers aren't coming to certain large urban areas anymore.
- You have the advancement of school choice with the voucher systems being available to more families than they were in the past.
Q: What programs are you excited about this school year?
We have Space Florida academies at nine high schools across the district, where it's focused on aerospace, aviation, and other engineering pathways.
- We have an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school in Deerfield Beach that is focused on artificial intelligence and media.
- We have a Hallandale high school that's going to four-day-a-week schooling, and their academic focus is going to be entrepreneurship and technology.
Q: What will the AI policy look like?
It's going to focus on ethical use and the safety of our students who are using it.
- We want to make sure our students are well equipped to go into the industry with the type of knowledge that they need.
Q: What's the current status of the active-shooter drone pilot program at Boyd H. Anderson?
We're still in the planning stages with the vendor.
- When this opportunity arose, we actually jumped to it and found a building that's pretty complex to utilize the pilot with to work out all the kinks before we actually scale it.
Q: What's the status of the district's Schools of Hope program?
- As it is right now, we have a co-located Hope school with KIPP at William Dandy Middle School starting in the '27-'28 school year.