After flooding-related closures, Broward County Public Schools will reopen Friday, dashing the hopes of students who thought they might get a week-and-a-half Thanksgiving break.

With plans in place to close next week for the holiday, the school district faced an unexpected closure Thursday due to heavy rains and flooding throughout the county.

“We know it’s real convenient for them to stay home, but we want them back, and we need them back,” Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata said in a news conference on Thursday.

Flooding remained a problem in some schools throughout Thursday, but Licata said he’s hopeful most issues should be resolved by Friday. Parent pickup and drop-off areas and bus loops at all schools are clear, he said.

“We are expected to be 100% fully open, and if there (are) any individual cases, we’re handling individually with the schools,” he said. “We’ve got some damages, but nothing significant that we can’t fix in 24 hours.”

Licata named some schools that were still a concern on Thursday because of flooding:

  • Pompano Beach Middle (also downed trees)
  • Northeast High in Oakland Park (staff parking lot)
  • North Side Elementary in Fort Lauderdale
  • Piper High in Sunrise (parking lot)
  • Western High in Davie (auditorium and fields)

The cafeteria at Markham Elementary in Pompano Beach saw flooding, and the district is having a contractor pump out the water; there is a backup plan if students can’t use the cafeteria area on Friday, Licata said.

A few schools in the Deerfield Beach area had power issues, which Licata expected to be resolved Thursday.

The district has not decided if or when to make up the missed day. It has four possible makeup days designed for hurricanes.

On Wednesday, the district didn’t notify the public about the next-day closures until 9:55 p.m., leading to some criticism on social media about not providing families with enough notice.

Licata said the district realized by 9:15 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. that the conditions were serious enough to close.

“We would have had a lot of children on the road at 6 a.m., and if you were on the roads at 6 a.m., which I was, you know there were some howling winds and a lot of flooding,” Licata said. “I wasn’t comfortable with our buses trying to pick students up.”

This is the second time in 2023 that the district has closed due to flooding, the last time being two days in April after torrential rains caused an estimated $8 million in damage to county school buildings.

Most of the times, when the district closes schools due to weather, it’s because of a hurricane. It historically has decided to close (and later reopen) all county schools at the same time, not just those that sustain damages.

“We know some areas don’t flood, but a lot of them do,” Licata said. “When we make a decision, it impacts everyone and it’s going to be an equitable decision.”

This week’s storm also affected several college campuses countywide. Florida Atlantic University closed its three Broward campuses, in Fort Lauderdale, Davie and Dania Beach, on Thursday. All will resume normal classes and schedules Friday.

Broward College, which also houses the school district’s College Academy high school, closed its campuses both Wednesday and Thursday. It faced major flooding at its central campus in Davie, which will remain closed Friday. Classes and activities at its north and south campuses will resume Friday.

Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Campus in Dania Beach has been closed since Tuesday afternoon, but the main campus in Davie remained open.