Broward School Board pays ousted superintendent almost $268,000 and names interim leader
Broward County School Board agreed Tuesday to pay Superintendent Vickie Cartwright almost $268,000 in severance, $100,000 less than what was negotiated, after it scrapped plans to keep her as a consultant for 60 days. She will leave immediately.
The board also named Earlean Smiley, a longtime former district administrator and former principal, as interim superintendent.
The board voted 7-2 to name Smiley, 71, a retired former deputy superintendent and former principal at Blanche Ely High in Pompano Beach, as interim superintendent. The board and the district’s general counsel will begin negotiating with Smiley, whose name has surfaced among board members over the past few months as Cartwright’s replacement.
Board Chair Lori Alhadeff, Vice Chair Debra Hixon, Sarah Leonardi, Brenda Fam, Nora Rupert, along with Torey Alston and Daniel Foganholi, two appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, voted affirmatively. The two dissenters were Allen Zeman and Jeff Holness.
Because Smiley isn’t a current Broward district employee, the board had to appoint a “tasked assigned” superintendent, meaning that person will
return to her post after the interim is officially hired. Board members named Associate Superintendent Valerie Wanza, who has been with the school district since 1992.
“We are prepared to ensure that, regardless of the timeframe that I do sit in this seat, a runway will be securely cemented for [Smiley],” Wanza said after the vote.
The moves cap CartThe wright’s tumultuous tenure as superintendent. Her severance agreement came a year practically to the day — Feb. 9, 2022 — from when she was hired as the first woman superintendent of the nation’s sixth-largest school district. The nine-member board voted unanimously to approve the severance package Tuesday.
Cartwright’s departure comes after a tempestuous six months that began when Gov. DeSantis removed four sitting board members in August and appointed four GOP allies to the board, citing a grand-jury report that reprimanded the district for a school bond construction program that ballooned from $800 million to about a billion dollars.
The four appointees joined a fifth DeSantis appointee whom the governor appointed last April to replace a board member who resigned to run for state Senate. The five appointees gained a majority on the board and made life difficult for Cartwright. They scolded her in October over audit reports and fired her in November in a late-night meeting. With a new board in place after the Nov. 8 elections, the board rescinded the firing and rehired her with the idea that she would report back in January.
At the end of January, the board and Cartwright agreed to part ways.
Cartwright, 52, who became interim Broward superintendent in August 2021 and permanent superintendent in February
EARLY INTO HER ROLE AS INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT, VICKIE CARTWRIGHT CLASHED WITH GOV. RON DESANTIS AFTER THE BROWARD SCHOOL BOARD ENACTED A MASK MANDATE.
2022, was the first woman to run the Broward school district in its 107-year history. Her $350,000 annual contract was slated to run through Dec. 31, 2024.
Her November firing followed two audit reports revealing that longtime vendors — one that distributed caps and gowns and another that offered education management and training services — overcharged the district and parents by at least $1.4 million.
Cartwright, however, cast doubt on that being the motivation behind her firing, pointing to a surprise visit from the state Department of Education a day before the January board meeting.
“I would just say, ‘Look at it objectively and come to your own conclusions,’ ” she said at the January meeting.
Early into her role as interim, Cartwright clashed with DeSantis when the board enacted a mask mandate at the start of the 2021-22 school year. At the time, COVID-19 cases in Florida were topping more than 20,000 a day statewide. The board, along with Miami-Dade’s board and a few other school boards around the state, rebuffed DeSantis’ July 2021 executive order prohibiting mask mandates in schools.
Cartwright replaced Robert Runcie as superintendent. He stepped down after he was indicted and accused in April 2021 with lying to a statewide grand jury investigating the district. He pleaded not guilty. Shortly thereafter, he left the district with a $754,900 separation agreement.
Smiley is taking over until the district hires a new superintendent, a process than can take about eight months, according to David Azzarito, the district’s executive director of human resources and equity.
In January, the School Board voted unanimously to retain McPherson & Jacobson, a Nebraskabased
search firm, to conduct a national search for a superintendent. The district is paying the firm $50,000.
As the interim, Smiley will not be eligible for the permanent role.
The contract will be discussed by the board on Feb. 15.