How will Broward’s new superintendent deal with school closures and financial crisis?
Broward County Public Schools got a new superintendent Tuesday after Peter Licata unexpectedly announced his resignation due to health concerns.
His successor, Howard Hepburn, has inherited the many issues that face the sixth-largest school district in the country.
What are these challenges and how will Hepburn tackle them?
His first few hours on the dais might have shed some light.
SCHOOL CLOSINGS
The main problem in the Broward school district — and for Hepburn — remains the loss of millions of dollars because of shrinking student enrollment.
On Tuesday, the district’s chief financial officer, Judith Marte, said the loss of 4,300 students over the next school year has translated to a loss of $39 million in state funding.
The Tuesday meeting was the day that Licata was supposed to have brought details about what could be done to downsize the district. At a meeting last month, he promised board members to provide a more concrete proposal, but instead he provided his resignation. Hepburn had already been working closely with Licata and Alan Strauss, the school district’s task-assigned chief strategy and innovation officer, on school closures. So the frustration that board members felt after seeing how far the district was from having anything resembling a plan was aimed at Hepburn.
In the meeting, as district staffers said they plan to keep searching for specific plans to close or repurpose specific schools, the board pushed Hepburn to be more transparent and efficient. A board member called the process so far “too complicated” and “too slow.”
Hepburn said he will work to add more transparency and strengthen community input, and will bring details during the next board meeting.
“That May 14 workshop will include a lot of quantitative data that helps to defend the decision-making about why certain options were chosen, why certain school closures should be expected and also outlining next steps thereafter,” he said.
PAYING $80 MILLION TO CHARTER SCHOOLS
On March 27, the State Board of Education determined that the Broward County School Board was breaking state law and owes about $80 million to local charter schools.
The state board accused the School Board of not complying with a statute that requires the school district to proportionately share funds that it collects from a discretionary tax with charter schools, which are schools financed by taxpayers but managed by private entities.
The funds at hand came from a 2018 voter-approved referendum. The charter schools sued the school district last fall.
The state asked the district in late March to show how it will start complying with the revenue-sharing requirements by April 17.
On Tuesday, the School Board met in a closeddoor session with the charter schools’ attorneys to negotiate a settlement. After the session, the School Board approved a payment plan spanning from 2024 to 2026.
The School Board will pay one third of the debt plus interest on July 10, 2024, then one half of the remaining balance plus interest on July 10, 2025, and the full balance remaining with interest on July 10, 2026. All charter schools in the county will benefit.
Board member Allen Zeman was the only board member who dissented but didn’t say why. Board member Torey Alston abstained from voting
“out of an abundance of caution.”
LOSING SLEEP DUE TO BUDGET
The dwindling revenue from the drop in enrollment, the charter-schools settlement and a decision to approve teacher raises in late February have cut into the school district’s nearly $6 billion budget.
On Feb. 27, the School Board agreed to use nearly $20 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds to increase teacher pay, but because it’s a recurring expense and the district won’t get more federal dollars, the district needs to cut elsewhere.
On Tuesday, the board touched on the topic, and Marte said the board will have to make “difficult decisions” to keep their financials in order.
“I’m probably losing more sleep balancing this budget than I have since 2008, when we had the Great Recession,” she said.
In 2008, Marte worked as the CFO for Miami Dade County Public Schools. She stayed in MDCPS for nearly 15 years and has served in the Broward school district for a combined six years since.
“I’m not sleeping well,” she said, “and I dare say most of my staff isn’t either.”
Still, Marte said Hepburn had participated in the process even though he headed academics.
“Dr. Hepburn has been intimately involved with working through the budget with me in a partnership level that academics historically in my experience hasn’t been involved. He’s been a tremendous thought partner. And he’s helped craft some of what we present as difficult decisions, but decisions that have to be made.”
BIBLE CONTROVERSY
During Tuesday’s unpredictable meeting, Hepburn also dealt with the contentious issue of book challenges in schools.
Currently, the Broward school district allows any Broward resident to object to material used in public schools.
The process starts with them filling out a form detailing the objection. Then the director of the district’s Innovative Learning Department convenes a Superintendent’s Review Committee to review the objection. The committee uses a rubric to decide whether the material breaks any policies or laws, and then submits a recommendation to the superintendent. The superintendent then decides to follow through with the recommendation or not, and passes it on to the School Board.
Because the district received an objection to the Bible last year, an SRC met in December to discuss the objection and decided to leave the book in schools. The topic attracted a lot of public speakers who complained about other material and the process itself.
Toward the end of Tuesday’s discussion, Board member Brenda
Fam asked Hepburn to share his opinion on it.
“I won’t specifically provide an opinion, but I will confer that we have a specific process; our team follows through with that process,” Hepburn said. “When that information comes to me, I look at it with a fine-tooth comb, and support or do something different based on the recommendation.”
“Would you agree with me that that process has failed?” Fam volleyed back.
“Let me say this, we’ll review the process,” he said. “I’ve heard the feedback from the people in the audience on both sides of the issue. We’ll use a fine-tooth comb and review the process and make sure it’s working for everybody.”