Forest Glen Teacher Makes Heartfelt Plea to School Board: ‘Please Keep Our School Open’

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Forest Glen peace sign. {Ricardo Bustamante}

By Dawn M. Bustamante

Dear Members of the Broward County School Board:

I am the art teacher at Forest Glen Middle School, and I am writing to you with a heavy heart. I am asking you, from the bottom of my heart, to keep our school open.

Becoming a teacher was the hardest and most meaningful thing I have ever done. I was a stay-at-home mom, and the road to the classroom took determination and sacrifice. I began at a charter school teaching Business because they gave me my first chance. I earned and hold FLDOE certifications in Business Education 6-12 and Marketing Education 6-12, but my heart was always set on Art Education.

When I was hired as the art teacher at Forest Glen Middle and passed my Art K-12 subject area exam, I finally felt I had come home and become part of a family. Teaching in Broward County Public Schools is an accomplishment I am deeply proud of, and my husband, daughters, and family are immensely proud of me for it.

I am now beginning my journey for my Master’s in Art Education at FSU so I can continue my journey as an Art Educator, and my hope was always to expand on the knowledge I gained here at FGMS.

When I arrived, the art room was in poor condition and the program was limited. No money has been spent on that art room for years. Over four years, I have poured my heart into transforming both. We now offer Art 1, Art 2, Art 3, and a fully functioning ceramics studio.

My students have been finalists in the Broward County art contests every year, and two currently have pieces on display in the Superintendent’s gallery on the 10th floor. I have built partnerships with Blick Art, the NSU Art Museum, and others.

My colleagues tell me how much of a difference this has made, because students with art embedded in their curriculum and are changed by it. I have watched shy children find their voices and discover pride in themselves. Now I am honored to be the Teacher of the Year at Forest Glen Middle School.

I left the charter system because I could not stand by and watch it put students second. I saw rules bent, students with disabilities turned away, and children treated as a source of funding.

Public education was a natural fit. Here, every child is welcomed and cared for as a whole child. In my four years at Forest Glen, I have found it to be the most nurturing school I have ever worked in. These students are capable of immeasurable things, and their talent shines in every art our school offers. They are amazing kids, with devoted parents and a loving staff.

With the leadership of Principal Dr. Claire Norris, our school has risen to an A-rated school. Our staff worked tirelessly to achieve that, and just as we did, we received the news that we were on the chopping block again. We feel defeated, abandoned, and hopeless. Teachers with decades of experience are asking themselves what their “why” is again.

A neighborhood school is the heart of the community it serves. At Forest Glen, children find a place where they belong, with teachers who know them by name and friends they have grown up alongside. Families have a trusted school close to home, where parents, teachers, and neighbors look out for each other’s children.

Our school brings the whole community together at concerts by our award-winning band and choir, at art shows, and at celebrations that families look forward to all year.

I have begun working with the Mayor of Coral Springs, and we are partnering with the city and the Art Alliance Network to bring more arts to our town through our students and keep them on that path through high school and beyond.

Closing Forest Glen would end that momentum and hurt not only our school community but the city as a whole. When a school like this closes, those bonds are broken. Children are sent to unfamiliar campuses, farther from home and away from the friends, teachers, and routines that help them feel safe and succeed. Families lose their anchor, neighbors lose a source of shared pride, and the community loses part of its identity. A school with nearly 40 years of history cannot be rebuilt once it is gone.

I also want to be honest about what this means for me personally. I fought hard to get here, and the thought of losing this school feels as though all of that effort could be taken away.

If Forest Glen closes, I am not sure I will remain a teacher. I do not want to end up miles from my home, or teaching a subject I never set out to teach and be out of field again. There is only one art teacher in each school, so I do not even know whether an art position will be open.

This is not our fault. But it’s now our problem. Broward County Public Schools has spent countless dollars on waste and mismanagement, including administrative spending that has grown out of control, and teachers and students are the ones asked to pay for it. We have done without for so long.

We have worked with broken chairs and no budget, and we have had to be creative to get parents and companies to donate. Teachers pay for countless supplies out of our own pockets so that our students never go without. Our children should not bear the cost of decisions they had no part in making.

Forest Glen Middle School has been a pillar of this community for nearly 40 years, and next year we will celebrate our 40th anniversary. I know this story is just mine, but it matters deeply to me. I have countless colleagues with similar stories who are struggling to find a reason to believe in the system we signed up for.

Some began their careers here right out of college and are now at retirement age, and they deserve a better answer than this. Please keep our school open so we can continue to give our students the opportunity, support, and creative education they deserve. Our children, our families, and our community are counting on you.

Dawn M. Bustamante is an Art Teacher at Forest Glen Middle School. She currently lives in Coconut Creek.

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Sharon Aron Baron

Editor of Talk Media and writer for Coral Springs Talk. CST was created in 2012 to provide News, Views, and Entertainment for the residents of Coral Springs and the rest of South Florida.