After years of neglect, $47 million renovation project completed at Northeast High School
OAKLAND PARK - Talon Frazier has big plans, the Jr. ROTC student at Northeast High School will take flying lessons over the summer.
For now, he's thrilled to be going to classes in a brand new building that opened just days ago on his campus.
"It's a lot more comfy and refreshing to go here every day," he says. When I got here this was a vacant empty parking lot."
For years, the school that was opened in 1962, was a poster child for crumbling Broward schools with leaking roofs, mold and poor air conditioning.
It was one of the schools that was supposed to be renovated immediately after Broward taxpayers approved an $800 million bond issue in 2014, but through a complicated mixture of delays, mismanagement, skyrocketing costs, and state funding cuts nothing happened.
On Friday, school board members, activists, the superintendent and local leaders toured the just-completed $47 million project that included 24 classrooms, art labs, office space and a teacher planning room.
The principal waited nine years for this to happen. "It's a process. There's red tape, permitting. It had to be tied into the Oakland Park water system," said principal Anthony Valachovic.
CBS Miami has been documenting the dilapidated conditions at some schools mostly in the east and Central Broward.
Broward's new Superintendent Peter Licata on the job for six months is tasked with fixing it.
"It's gonna take time to catch up, but it's happening," he says. Completion projects are underway at other schools "And I hope it will build trust with the community," says board member Sarah Leonardi, who has stressed the importance of completing the renovations at Northeast High School.