Group to advise school district on WLRN’s direction in wake of dispute

After widespread criticism of the Miami-Dade school district’s push for more control of WLRN, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is seeking the advice of professionals to help guide negotiations on the futureof the award-winning public radio and TV station.

On Friday, the school district announced that a group of journalists and a former public officialwould meet as early as next week to discuss how to ensure WLRN’s continued independence in light of a dispute between the station’s fundraising arm and the school board, which owns the station’s operating license. The small circle will include former Miami Herald publisher Alberto Ibargüen, now president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; David Lawrence Jr., a formerHerald publisher and advocate for early childhood education; former Herald editorial page editor and journalist Joe Oglesby; andformerMiami-Dade county Commissioner Katy Sorenson, who founded the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami.

The goal, Carvalho told the Herald’s editorial board Thursday, is to find a solution that protects WLRN’s independence while resolving the school district’s concerns over the station’s finances.

The conflict centers on a proposed operating agreement that would force 19 journalists currently employed by an independent nonprofit to reapply for their jobs through the school board, which critics say would jeopardize WLRN’s independence. The school district maintains that it will not interfere in editorial decisions and is only interested in greater oversight of Friends of WLRN, an affiliated fundraising operation.

The proposal has been widely condemned by WLRNlisteners.

All four advisers confirmed their participation Friday, though none commented on the disagreement between the district and its nonprofit partner.