By: Sharon Aron Baron
Question: Has there been any survey to gauge community interest in a charter high school in this area?
Answer: No formal survey has been taken, however, there has been general community interest expressed by residents to City staff and officials specifically related to the need for a charter high school in the area.
This is one of the questions and answers in the recent request for proposal or RFP from the City of Tamarac who is looking for a charter school company to build in our city.
They put out the RFP without polling residents to see if they even wanted a charter high school, not that it matters, because the most important thing is that our city doesn’t even have an Educational Advisory Board. This important board which most cities, including Lauderhill, have could advise the city commission on whether a charter school would be in our best interest and if we had the student population to support it without further under-enrolling neighboring Broward County Public Schools.
To make matters even worse, this won’t even be a municipal run charter like Coral Springs or Pembroke Pines Charter School. No, the city wants nothing more to do with it other than to lease them the land it sits on.
Here we have Coral Glades, JP Taravella and Piper High School which are all A-Rated High Schools which are miles from the proposed location at the Sports Complex and all of them are under-enrolled. There is no reason why Tamarac needs to be sending out proposals for charter high schools.
Keep your eye on the lobbyists that visit city hall…..
