Broward School Board ends $2.6M lease amid budget deficit. Why that happened now
At a special meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 4, the Broward County School Board voted to rescind a five-year, $2.6 million lease agreement with HANDY, short for Helping Advance and Nurture the Development of Youth.
The agreement, approved June 17, planned for the district to house about 75 facilities staff members in part of HANDY’S Wilton Manors Office.
The vote comes as the district faces an $85 million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year.
The district has already paid about $275,000 in rent and deposits from June through November, as well as $88,000 on wiring and technology upgrades to prepare the space.
Still, board members hope to save more than $2 million over the next five years by ending the lease, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
No representatives from HANDY were at Tuesday’s meeting. The Pembroke Pines News reached out to HANDY officials multiple times for comment on Oct. 5 and did not receive a response.
Some board and community members questioned why the district was spending more than $500,000 a year to rent office space for a small number of employees when it has ample room in under-enrolled schools and is not required to vacate its current office building until May 2027, according to the Sun Sentinel.
The district also has been trying to reduce its vacant real estate, which board members say could otherwise attract state-supported charter schools known as “Schools of Hope.” These schools are allowed to open in areas with persistently low-performing schools and can request to use district facilities.
In October, the Miami-based charter operator Mater Academy asked to house 18,000 charter students on 27 district campuses.
“The idea that we’re repurposing, we’re closing schools, we’re trying to reduce our footprint, then we received a letter from Mater [Academy] on the School of Hope thing with places that they wanted to move into, it’s just really obvious that we have to be filling our own spaces before we lease out spaces somewhere else,” School Board Chair Debbie Hixon told the Pembroke Pines News.
District 1 school board member Maura Bulman introduced the proposal on Tuesday’s agenda to end the lease.
“We have space that we need to fill or we will be vulnerable to having the schools of hope come in,” Bulman said at Tuesday’s meeting. “And so we are not in a position right now to be in this lease.”
While board members largely agreed on the need to cut costs and make the most of their real estate, some raised legal and partnership concerns about withdrawing from a signed contract midway through the year.
Hixon said the district attorney confirmed the board was within its legal rights to terminate the agreement under a provision that allows cancellation if funds are not allocated.
“Landlords typically write contracts that lean towards their benefit, not the renter’s benefit, and that’s what happened in this instance,” Hixon said.
Hixon said she struggled with the decision because of HANDY’s long-standing partnership with the district.
“I personally have a little bit of concern,” Hixon said. “We have a very good relationship with HANDY, so backing out in the middle of a year feels bad, but when you’re looking at it just from a business sense, it absolutely makes sense.”
According to Hixon, the district’s finances have taken a turn in recent months, in part due to the unexpected loss of about 9,000 students.
“We have just recently, in the last couple of months, really come to understand the economic and financial crisis that we’re in,” Hixon said. “We took a hit that was not expected, and … you have to be able, in a business sense, to look at things and say, ‘This is not making sense for our business model,’ and be able to correct that.”
Hixon added that the decision aligns with the district’s broader focus to use its facilities first.
“We can’t say we’re closing schools because of enrollment and then turn around and spend money on facilities that are not ours,” she said.
Deputy Superintendent Angela Fulton, who was filling in for Superintendent Howard Hepburn at Tuesday’s meeting, told members the district would conduct an “after-action” report to understand how this happened and the key takeaways.
This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 5:25 PM.
