As students begin to settle into the classroom after the call of the final bell, the teacher begins her lesson. Within moments, the sound of heavy footsteps can be heard from outside. The whole room begins to shake. The students look up to the ceiling as pounding and drilling echo from above, drowning out the voice of the teacher. She sighs, waiting for them to finish before continuing her lesson. The construction workers are repairing the roof.
Construction efforts beginning at the end of last school year have brought major changes to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s campus. This included the demolition of the 1200 building, and it currently involves renovation of a number of buildings on campus.
Beginning at the end of last school year in April, major repair efforts have consumed almost every building on campus. The overall project called for new air handlers for the HVAC system–the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. Each building has its own system, so each needs to be installed separately.
The project also required the placement of new roofs on all buildings, except for the 400, 700 and 900 buildings, and the implementation of a new fire alarm system that will fully replace the current system.
The renovations are part of Broward County Public School’s SMART bond program, an $800 million capital improvement program approved by taxpayers to repair school facilities, and provide schools with technology, athletic equipment and musical instruments.
This district-wide program, which was first implemented in 2014, has undergone multiple state investigations due to its alleged mismanagement. What was initially supposed to take five years to complete is now in year 10 and is $525 million over budget.
MSD construction plans took several months and received approval to begin at the end of last year. The construction is expected to be completed at the end of summer 2025.
In the summer of 2023, the 100, 400, and 900 buildings received new air handlers. The 200 building air handler installation was completed during this past summer, and at the start of this school year, construction began on the 600 building.
The three teachers in the upstairs 600 building were temporarily relocated to empty classrooms in the 900 building. They have since returned to their rooms, and now 300 building teachers have relocated.
The auditorium and the band hallway were unusable for the first two months of school due to construction projects related to the HVAC system, roof and a band room redesign.
“Well it’s not unusual for us, for drama to rehearse in our room prior to our shows,” theater teacher Melody Herzfeld said. “What we usually do is we rehearse for months in our classroom, in 710, and we really don’t go into the theater for setup and construction work until two to three weeks before each show. But what it has affected is all of the learning opportunities for new tech students so they can understand how to handle lighting and sound and specific things about the auditorium that are the basis of technical theater so that we can support all of the other groups that do go in there.”

Gallery • 2 Photos

Grace Brill

Climbing the Ladder. Equipment such as cones and ladders line the roof of the 600 building. The building’s roof, as well as the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system are being replaced as outlined by the Broward County Public School’s SMART bond program.

Originally moved from downstairs in the 800 building to upstairs in the 900 building, band students had to bring all their instruments and equipment up the stairs and practice in a room that is much smaller than the band room.
“The construction around campus has really limited the availability of space across the whole campus,” junior Alyssa Rapps said. “Not only can we not use the band room for rehearsal space, but we can’t use the auditorium either. This really becomes a problem when there’s bad weather, and we just have nowhere that is big enough for all of us.”
The construction affected band practice during the summer as well. Because trucks were coming and going from the senior lot, students had to wait until the demolition of the 1200 building was fully completed to begin summer band camp.
Later in this year, construction will start on the 500 building, which will require those to relocate their classrooms. New portables have been installed by the district to house these classes when this phase of construction begins.
Work on the roof and alarm system takes place during the school day and over the weekends. During instructional time, the noise can be distracting for students and teachers. Sounds of the workers hauling and replacing the roof can be heard throughout the day.
“I wish they wouldn’t do [the construction] during school,” senior Tam-an Nguyen said. “It’s really distracting, especially when we’re trying to learn.”
The construction also has interfered with the functioning of clubs on campus, over this summer and after school. For instance, Marjory’s Garden Club, a student-run club that works on maintaining and expanding the on-campus garden, was unable to work all summer due to construction crews coming and going from the bus loop lot. This put a major dent in the upkeep of the garden, as only staff were allowed to come in on Sundays at that time.
“The summer is the most difficult month for us because we’re usually down on people anyway, and so, it left it up to the teachers to try to maintain the garden,” astronomy teacher Kyle Jeter said. “We did the best we could, but now that we have the students back, we’re operating in full gear again and trying to get the garden in shape.”
At the start of the school year, members of the club and other volunteers were able to return to the garden. The garden is still currently off limits for A and B lunches, which was available for students in prior years on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Nevertheless, staff and students believe that the various projects will be a great help to the school. Classrooms that are constantly too hot or too cold, as well as the fire alarm system which goes off frequently, will hopefully be repaired by the end of this school year.
“I’m very happy that they’re doing construction in the auditorium to provide good ventilation and air conditioning,” Herzfeld said. “It’s just, unfortunately, these things are time sensitive because we’re in school, and we have to provide an opportunity for the kids, so we just get a little bit creative in improvising what we do until we get back in there.”

This story was originally published in the October 2023 Eagle Eye print edition.