West Broward High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

West Broward High School is a high school in Broward County. It is still under construction with a scheduled opening of August, 2008. The school is located in west Pembroke Pines, Florida.^[1]

The school was constructed to relieve overcrowding at nearby schools such as Everglades High School, Charles W. Flanagan High School, Cypress Bay High School and Miramar High School. Daniel Traeger was named the school's first ever principal on November 15, 2007. The school's mascot are the Bobcats and the school colors are Carolina blue and silver. The school is notable for its first ever Veterinary Medicine magnet program. The school was built to house 2500 students.

West Broward High will feed 100% from Silver Trail Middle and portions of Glades Middle.

The school will be on a 7 period A/B schedule.

1 Naming
2 Controversy
3 References
4 External Links

[edit] Naming

Originally, the school was to be named Independence High School with the mascot and school colors being Warriors and royal blue and black respectively. However, the Broward County School Board voted these down due to concern over voting irregularities despite the lack of evidence for such irregularities. A new naming committee was established and the current name and colors were selected. The school board officially approved the name on January 15, 2008.

[edit] Controversy

The school was the subject of much controversy prior to its construction. There were several problems with other sites that were selected for the school, and many considered its construction to be a boondoggle. Also, many nearby residents feared their homes would see increased traffic, noise and crime if a school was built in its current location. The residents of the neighboring Malibu Bay housing development petitioned to have a wall built between their developement and the school. The school board refused which caused a great deal of conflict between the Broward County School Board and the City of Pembroke Pines. Lastly, there was further controversy with the name of the school. Many members of the community wanted to name the school "Pembroke Pines High School" or "West Pines High School". However, school board policy prohibited this. This led to a series of testy emails exchanged between school board and city officials.

A series of public hearings will be held in March and April to implement the new boundaries.