Grand jury report to focus on school safety

Findings reveal much of the 2011 Broward analysis was ignored

A statewide grand jury is expected to issue a report in coming weeks that could spotlight problems that Broward schools never resolved after a grand jury a decade ago.

Much of the report will focus on school safety in the wake of the Parkland school shooting in 2018. But the statewide panel also has been tackling repeat issues considered by grand juries in 1997, 2002 and 2011, including public corruption and mismanagement of school construction projects, preliminary reports show.

The former district technology chief has already been arrested on bribery and bid rigging charges.

The grand jury was scheduled to complete its work Saturday and issue a report within weeks.

The 2011 grand jury created

a major disruption in the district, with former Superintendent Jim Notter resigning and seven of nine School Board members resigning, getting defeated at the polls or not seeking reelection in 2012. But the School Board apparently wasn’t eager to follow the grand jury’s advice, rejecting most of the sweeping recommendations.

The school district maintains that it took all of the recommendations seriously, according to a statement from the office of Chief Communications Officer Kathy Koch. The district made significant changes to policies, procedures and internal controls, even if many specific recommendations weren’t followed, the statement said.

“While implementation of the 2011 grand jury recommendations was not mandatory, the district developed an action plan of more than 50 items in response to the findings and recommendations,” the statement said.

Here are the grand jury’s recommendations and what actions, if any, were taken.

Followed

RECOMMENDATION: Remove all involvement by board members in the selection of contractors, vendors or financial institutions.

This was one of the most significant steps the School Board took after the grand jury. At the time, School Board members sat on the committees to select contractors for construction work. This led to complaints that they were influencing who got work, especially after two School Board members were arrested on corruption and ethics charges, with one board member sent to federal prison.

After the grand jury report, School Board members passed a policy saying they could no longer serve on any vendor selection committees. That remains the policy today.

RECOMMENDATION: Require mandatory ethics training and testing by an outside agency.

School Board members now receive yearly ethics training by the state Ethics Commission and Attorney General’s Office.

RECOMMENDATION: All late additions to the board’s agenda must be discussed at a public meeting.

Late additions are announced by the superintendent and School Board chairwoman at the start of the meeting and are placed onto the portion of the agenda that allows for board discussions.

RECOMMENDATION: Don’t allow large purchases to be approved without the School Board being able to discuss it.

The School Board used to pass numerous big-dollar items in one full swoop by what’s known as consent. The School Board still approves many items this way but no longer ones that require spending money.

RECOMMENDATION: Overhaul the way the district returns money to contractors at the end of the project.

The grand jury complained that the School Board was often on the hook for unfinished projects because it was too quick to give back money that was supposed to be held until everything was complete. The grand jury recommended providing more details to the board about these payments, ensuring the superintendent or a top administrator has signed off on any recommendations and ensure the School Board has a chance to discuss them before approving them. A review of three completed projects in 2021 shows the district doing what was requested.

Not followed

RECOMMENDATION: Refuse campaign contributions from contractors, vendors and others doing business with the Board.

School Board members have received thousands in contributions in recent years from contractors and subcontractors doing millions of dollars in work for the school district.

The School Board implemented a weaker policy in 2011 that says School Board members cannot accept contributions “during the period in which said person or entity is attempting to sell goods or services to the School Board.” This period, known as the “cone of silence,” lasts from the period bids are sought until they’re approved.

For the most part, this was followed. A review of contributions from the 2018 and 2020 election cycles found at least two violations. In 2018, board member Nora Rupert received a $500 contribution from Di Pompeo Construction while it was vying for renovations at Miramar Elementary, which the company won. In 2020, Heather Brinkworth, who was defeated for reelection, accepted a $500 donation from Advanced Roofing, while it was under the cone of silence for a bid to renovate Watkins Elementary in Pembroke Park, a bid Advanced lost.

Rupert said her accepting the gift during the cone of silence was unintentional. Brinkworth couldn’t be reached. There’s no indication either gift influenced any votes.

RECOMMENDATION: End the influence of the board over the Building Department by turning over inspections to local (city or county) building departments.

”Given the size of the district’s capital program, it is more cost effective to perform this function in-house,” then-School Board Chairman Benjamin Williams wrote to the state’s education commissioner in 2011. “Turning over the district’s inspections to 31 local building departments and their independent inspection processes may serve to negatively impact standardization.”

The current grand jury has made the same recommendation in an interim report, but for a different reason, saying the current structure has created long delays and skyrocketing costs with the district’s $800 million bond-funded school construction program.

“Having a building inspection department, which is controlled by and answerable to a local school district, makes it incredibly easy for school officials to hide deficiencies, spoof timelines and control the flow of information to the public,” the Dec. 10 interim report said.

RECOMMENDATION: Create an independent office of inspector general to monitor the board and district.

After Superintendent Robert Runcie was hired in 2011, board members argued that there was little building going on at the time and that existing layers of oversight, including the school district audit department and the Department of Education’s inspector general, were sufficient.

Then state Sen. Nan Rich, mother of board member Laurie Rich Levinson, helped kill a bill in the state Legislature that would have put the school district under the umbrella of Broward County’s inspector general.

In 2016. after the $800 bond-funded school construction program was first showing signs of problems, the School Board discussed the idea again but rejected it, saying the U.S. Department of Education’s inspector general was authorized to investigate complaints. But an official from that office told the board it had too few resources to review most issues.

RECOMMENDATION: Quit using a building delivery method known as “construction manager at risk” and return to low bids. Prohibit bids from builders with outstanding issues.

The grand jury blasted a building method favored by contractors known as “construction manager at risk,” calling it “an abomination that has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars” in Broward County. Under construction manager at risk, a contractor is judged based on a number of factors by a committee, not just on whether it has the lowest price. This method is supposed to cost more on the front end, but the district should avoid costly change orders. But Broward had paid more initially and also had numerous change orders, the 2011 report said.

After agreeing not to use this method, the School Board changed its mind in 2016, saying it was valuable for a limited number of projects. Since then, it’s been used for most of the larger construction projects in the $800 million bond. Since few are complete, it’s too soon to say whether it’s causing the district to overpay. Most of the smaller projects are selected by low bids.

As for the quality of builders, some contractors have turned in poor work but still get rehired, Kathleen Langan, senior program director for AECOM, a management company hired by the district, told the district’s Bond Oversight Committee in January.

“We’re experiencing problems with vendors and contractors who simply cannot seem to perform,” she said. “That has to change.”

RECOMMENDATION: Reduce the number of School Board members from nine to five.

The grand jury concluded that the nine-member School Board, which includes representatives of seven districts and two countywide seats, gave the superintendent too many bosses and resulted in too much interference into daily operations. The School Board rejected calls for a smaller board in April 2011.

“The Board felt that as large as each district is, services that each Board Member provide would be unmanageable with five larger districts and response time to constituents would be longer,” according to meeting minutes.

RECOMMENDATION: Place before the voters the issue of electing the superintendent.

Board members unanimously rejected this suggestion, which the grand jury concluded would lead to less micromanagement of the superintendent.

“They believe the superintendent should be out of the political process and to always be objective with

the focus being on the students and School District,” according to minutes from an April 2011 meeting.

RECOMMENDATION: All bids should be opened in public, with an auditor there to certify that bids met requirements.

Then-Chairman Williams told the education commissioner in 2011 that the district didn’t have the staff to do this.

“An auditor will immediately begin to attend construction bid openings on a random basis to review and document management’s enforcement of compliance with the bid and award process,” Williams wrote.

Not fully followed

RECOMMENDATION: Prohibit gifts of any value to any board member or district employee from anyone doing business with the district or lobbying the board

The School Board adopted a policy in 2011 prohibiting this practice, and there’s no evidence board members have violated it.

However, in January, former Chief Information Officer Tony Hunter was arrested on charges of bid rigging and bribery after prosecutors for the statewide grand jury say he steered business to a friend who gave him free rent and a large discount on a house purchase. Hunter has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations.

In 2020, former grounds supervisor Richard Ellis pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from an asphalt contractor.

Before either were arrested, audits showed weak purchasing policies or internal controls that increased the potential for fraud.

RECOMMENDATION: The School Board should engage in no discussions with each other, formal or informal, or make decisions, outside of a publicly advertised meeting.

While school district officials say they comply with the Sunshine Law, several incidents have raised questions.

In January 2019, the South Florida Sun Sentinel filed a lawsuit after three School Board members — Lori Alhadeff, Nora Rupert and Robin Bartleman — showed up a private meeting to discuss safety issues at Stoneman Douglas. The district agreed to limit subsequent meetings to only one School Board member, which enabled the meeting to remain private.

That same month, board members Laurie Rich Levinson and Rosalind Osgood appeared together on a TV news program to voice their support for Runcie, two months before they rejected a request by another board member to fire him. The school district did not notify the public that the two would discuss this issue.

Although some legal and political experts felt the interviews may have violated the Sunshine Law, district lawyer Barbara Myrick disagreed. She said Levinson and Osgood were each answering questions asked by a moderator, not discussing the topic with each other, and they were repeating statements they’d previously made.

In 2016, the School Board held a retreat at Nova Southeastern University that wasn’t advertised to the public. Board members Bartleman and Brinkworth felt it was improper and refused to attend. The seven other members attended.

Myrick told board members they didn’t have to advertise it but they must be sure not to discuss issues that could come up in a board meeting.

“I think you need to weigh the risk of not advertising against the risk of a few members of the community coming to watch the retreat,” Myrick wrote at the time.

RECOMMENDATION: Add more detail to agenda items or provide a link to where more information concerning the item can be found.

Some items contain large amounts of backup material. But at nearly every School Board meeting, some School Board members complain about information that should have been included in backup material but wasn’t.

In June 2019, the School Board was asked to approve a $6 million payroll systems contract, but the School Board wasn’t given the contract to read, and they tabled the matter.

Sometimes board members learn months or years later what was missing.

At a December 2017 meeting, the School Board approved a three-day suspension for Andrew Medina, a coach and security monitor at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland for “inappropriate conduct.” The board wasn’t told that a panel of administrators recommended he be fired for sexually harassing two female students and that the human resources chief reversed it. Medina was let go six months later amid concerns that he allowed the Parkland shooter onto campus.

At a July 2016 meeting, the School Board approved a $24 million contract of 322 audiovisual items. The board wasn’t told that $17 million of that would be for one product, Recordex flat panel interactive TV’s. The Sun Sentinel uncovered in 2019 that this purchase benefited a friend of Hunter, the former technology chief who was arrested this year on bid rigging and bribery charges.

Difficult to assess

RECOMMENDATION: No official business should be done between the School Board and district staff except during public meetings.

District staff meet regularly with School Board members one on one to discuss issues that will come up in a public meeting. School district officials say this is just to answer questions and help expedite meetings, while critics say the intent is to circumvent public discussion.

RECOMMENDATION: Read a 2002 grand jury report that raised similar issues as the one in 2011.

Some board members say they read it, but it’s unclear if the suggestion applied only to School Board members at the time or all those who joined later as well. The link provided to the 2002 report is no longer active.

Abolish the school board

The 2011 grand jury felt that corruption and mismanagement were so severe in the district that it wanted to make an even more extreme recommendation.

“But for the constitutional mandate that requires an elected School Board for each District, our first and foremost recommendation would have been to abolish the Broward County School Board altogether,” the grand jury wrote.

Since that report, the superintendent and most School Board members have changed, but longstanding problems the grand jury identified have remained.

“Unfortunately based on the history of this board as an institution, we have no confidence in their ability to make meaningful changes and to adhere to them,” that grand jury wrote in 2011.