South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Runcie receives mediocre review
Broward Schools superintendent gets his worst evaluation ever
A divided Broward School Board gave Superintendent Robert Runcie his worst evaluation ever, with four members rating him either awful or mediocre and three giving him top marks.
Overall, Runcie received a rating of 2.8 out of a possible 4 points, which is on the low end of effective. He also received his first-ever ratings of unsatisfactory, the lowest possible mark, for a year marked by efforts to recover from the Parkland tragedy, a grand jury investigation and a failed effort to fire him.
Runcie, who started with the district in 2011, received his highest marks for student achievement, as the school district has made modest academic gains in the past few years.
Board members were divided on his overall leadership, with some saying he has put a strong focus on safety and security and led a successful referendum effort in 2018 to get teachers raises. Others criticized the large turnover among high-level staff and the slow progress of an $800 million bond to renovate old schools. Five years after voters passed the referendum, only three of 233 schools are complete.
“Public trust is one of Mr. Runcie’s strengths,” Board member Rosalind Osgood wrote. “Under Mr. Runcie’s leadership, the district has passed two referendum items. Members of the community have voiced their support for Mr. Runcie’s leadership through press conferences, print media and during public speaking time at school board meetings.”
Board member Nora Rupert gave a completely opposite review.
“Superintendent Runcie still struggles to promote the core mission of the Broward County School Board amidst the continued decline of public trust, who doubts that he can finish the [$800 million bond] in a timely fashion. and deploy the [2018] referendum as promised,” Rupert wrote.
The division on the board was clear in March when new board member Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter was murdered in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting, asked the board to fire Runcie. The effort failed 6 to 3, with Rupert and Robin Bartleman siding with her.
— The worst review came from Alhadeff, who gave him an overall score of 1.4 out of 4, or unsatisfactory.
— Rupert marked Runcie unsatisfactory in leadership and management and gave him an overall score of 1.85, or needs improvement.
— Bartleman gave him an overall score of 2.25, or needs improvement, in a 223-page evaluation that included numerous charts, memos, and other pieces of backup data.
— Heather Brinkworth, who voted against firing Runcie but is often critical of his leadership, gave him a 2.6, which is a low effective rating. She marked him subpar in three out of four categories — high-quality instruction, continuous improvement and effective communications — although she said he was effective in leadership and management.
— Donna Korn rated him 3.38 and Patti Good 3.33, which are both effective.
— Three School Board members gave him the top score of highly effective: Laurie Rich Levinson (3.5), Ann Murray (3.5)
and Rosalind Os good (3.45).
Runcie rated himself more favorably than any School Board members did, with a highly effective score of 3.65.
“If there is one word that summarizes our last year, it is communication,” Runcie wrote. “As our district continues to move from response to recovery and from reactive to proactive following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy, continuous and seamless communication to all stakeholders has remained essential.”
School Board members disagreed, with five out of
nine giving him low marks on communications and no one rating him highly effective in this area. They complained of departments not communicating with each other, Runcie not communicating with the board, parents finding the district’s website difficult to navigate and too few positive stories appearing in the media.
“To say that the word ‘communication’ summarizes the 2018-2019 school year and that there was ‘seamless communication’ to all stakeholders being essential is a fabrication of the truth,” Alhadeff wrote.
Bartleman said the district’s communications office “appears to be more focused on representing the superintendent as an indi
vidual, as opposed to the district as a whole. Press releases and social media links consistently have his image as opposed to students, teachers, staff, or even our logo.”
Runcie did better in the categories of continuous improvement and highquality instruction, with several board members noting that none of the district’s traditional schools were rated F, Broward barely missed receiving an A grade from the state and graduation rates have improved.
“Superintendent Runcie continues to move the needle on student performance and increase positive outcomes … by focusing on learning and excellence for students,” Levinson wrote.