Years of enrollment declines have forced a number of South Florida public schools to either shutter and consolidate or consider doing so.

But in a region where construction is booming, private schools have long waitlists and developable land is getting harder to come by, the business community wants to pounce on the opportunities these closures create.

County officials are looking for ways to repurpose their underutilized real estate, but they are wary of the deals that are being brought to the table, officials from Broward and Palm Beach County schools said at Bisnow's South Florida K-12 Education Real Estate Summit on Tuesday.

"I can say, working a lot with government employees, they don't trust the private sector," Palm Beach County School District Chief Operating Officer Joseph Sanches said. "They always think that there's a better deal out there. So when unsolicited proposals come in, they're like, 'Ah, this guy's gonna make too much money. We're gonna lose.'"

Miami-Dade County and Broward County had the largest enrollment declines among the five largest school districts in the state between the 2023-2024 and 2025-2026 school years, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Miami-Dade County lost 20,476 students, and Broward County lost 17,727 students, according to the report.

In the last year alone, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade lost a combined 35,000 students, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.

Declining birth rates that have hit all-time lows, increased absences due to stricter immigration policies, and South Florida's growing affordability crisis pushing families out of the area have all contributed to the incremental declines in enrollment, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Howard Hepburn said.

The state also passed legislation in 2023 that offers up to $8K in taxpayer-backed vouchers through a priority system to help pay tuition for private schools — which, unlike the public school system, are bursting at the seams.

"That really brought a lot of new families to us, and we've actually opened or reopened four schools in the last four years as a result of that terrific demand," Catholic Schools at Archdiocese of Miami Secretary of Education and Superintendent Jim Rigg said onstage at The Gale Hotel in Downtown Miami.

Broward County has closed seven schools since the 2024 school year and is considering closing 10 more.

In response to the drastic consolidation, the board launched a Redefining Our Schools initiative, aiming to "right-size" its footprint. As part of the initiative, sites are being repurposed into branch campuses for colleges or district offices for nonprofits.

It is also turning to real estate developers to help with the process.

The site of North Fork Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, which shuttered after the 2025-2026 school year, is being considered for a mixed-use development with affordable housing, workforce training, a hotel, townhomes and reserve units for Broward County teachers and school support staff.

Development team Sistrunk Rising Group is hoping to lease the land to kick off the development, according to a proposal submitted to the school board.

"We're great at creating great learning experiences and exposure for kids to maximize their potential. We're not real estate agents. We're not real estate builders," Hepburn said. "We don't do all those things. So that's why we depend on partners to come in and provide a high level of expertise about what's the best-use case for this facility."

Broward is also considering proposals for the site of Seagull Alternative High School, a Fort Lauderdale high school that closed last school year, according to its website.

But surrounding school districts aren't moving as fast as Broward.

The school board for Miami-Dade, among the largest landowners in the county, voted to close nine schools last year, and 27 were under evaluation to determine whether they should remain operational.

But the district's new superintendent, Rafael Villalobos, temporarily paused the evaluation process this month.

On that closure list is a site in South Miami-Dade close to an Archdiocese of Miami Catholic school that the church "can fill two or three times over," Rigg said. Instead, it is looking to raise money for a new wing.

"Why should we not be in conversation with Miami-Dade?" Rigg said. "Why are we raising money to build with an underutilized building a block away?"

Leasing land to private entities can be mutually beneficial for developers and the school district, Taubco co-founder and principal Laura Tauber said.

"By taking the upfront cost off the table for development, that land cost, and forming a partnership, it does two things ... expedite the process and to generate cash flow for the school system," Tauber said.

Despite declining enrollment, Palm Beach County hasn't closed any schools and isn't looking to start that conversation yet, Sanches said.

Any conversations surrounding repurposing or making better use of space could include nonprofits sharing space with the schools, he said.

But he acknowledged that if the school district did look at closing any schools, offering their sites to developers would be a consideration.

"These last two years have been different, and whenever developers come to us, I said, 'No, we're not interested in selling property,' we're doing well," Sanches said. "Even last year, when we had one year of decline, they said one year doesn't make a trend. So talk to me in a couple of years."

"But now, we're in two years."

While South Florida school districts weigh what roles private developers, or even private school competitors, could have in their real estate, Hepburn said there is a cost to moving slowly.

"One of the things for us, if we close the school, the worst thing we can do is have that school sitting there, collecting dust, rotting away," Hepburn said. "So, for us, too, the conversation is how do we accelerate that transition of that school into what it's going to be?"