In April 2024, Dr. Howard Hepburn stepped into the role of Superintendent of Broward County Public Schools with a mandate that was simultaneously simple and vertiginous: stabilise a district facing a budget shortfall exceeding $90 million while sustaining excellence across 235 schools, 235,000 students, and a workforce of 40,000.
A district already stretched
Broward's operating costs were significant by any measure. Annual utility expenses ran to $55 million. Facilities maintenance labour exceeded $80 million per year. The district's student population — representing 174 countries and speaking 157 languages — required differentiated instruction at a scale few institutions anywhere in the world manage. Declining enrollment had reduced per-student funding while costs remained fixed.
Deploying Copilot at record speed
The district deployed 20,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences across its educator and administrative workforce — and later extended Copilot Chat and Copilot Studio access to students — in what became the largest K–12 Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout in the world. The deployment integrated with the district's existing Microsoft 365 ecosystem, meaning staff could begin using AI capabilities inside the tools they already used every day.
Reclaiming teacher time
The most immediately visible result was time. Educators who had spent significant portions of their working week on administrative tasks found themselves reclaiming six to seven hours per week. Dr. Sherri Wilson, the district's Director of Innovative Learning, described the stakes plainly: "We don't have a choice. We have to meet this moment and prepare our students for what's ahead. If we shy away from what's going on globally, we will be left behind."
Facilities savings and academic outcomes
Beyond educator time, the district is projecting $40–50 million in facilities savings over five years, driven by AI-assisted energy management. Academically, schools that had been on Florida's reading watch lists were removed following the deployment, with Boyd Anderson High School earning an A rating.
What they would do differently
District leadership described the key insight as sequencing. The decision to lead with operational efficiency — making the cost case before the pedagogical one — created the financial headroom to fund student-facing AI capabilities. Starting with teachers rather than students also built institutional trust in the technology before it reached classrooms.
“We don't have a choice. We have to meet this moment and prepare our students for what's ahead. If we shy away from what's going on globally, we will be left behind.”