South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
School board looks for stability
Four new Broward board members vow to focus on students after months of tumult
A tumultuous 19-month period of turmoil in Broward Schools — marked by the removal and replacement of four School Board members, the indictment of a former superintendent and an effort to fire the new superintendent — could be nearing its end. Maybe.
Four new board members are scheduled to be sworn in on Nov. 22 after winning elections Tuesday: property manager Rod Velez, tutoring business owner Jeff Holness, lawyer and flight attendant Brenda Fam and business CEO Allen Zeman.
This will be the School Board’s second major shakeup in three months. In late August, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended and replaced four longtime School Board members after the release of a grand jury report that found widespread mismanagement in the district.
That same grand jury indicted former Superintendent Robert Runcie on a perjury charge, former General Counsel Barbara Myrick on a charge of illegally disclosing
secret grand jury information and former technology chief Tony Hunter on bribery and bid-rigging charges. All three have pleaded not guilty and their cases are pending.
But even if that drama is behind, questions remain for the new board, including how the addition of Fam, a newly elected “anti-woke” conservative, will affect the pro-LGBTQ, racial diversity and social justice policies the historically liberal school district has championed for years.
It also remains to be seen whether newly elected board member, Velez, will be allowed to serve since he has a felony in his background and hasn’t gotten his full civil rights restored yet. It’s a question that may not be answered until after Velez, who is still fighting for full restoration of rights, is sworn in.
Still, most board members remain confident that the seating of a new board will at least start an effort to focus more on student achievement and less on “adult issues,” such as audits, botched personnel searches and questions about whether to fire Superintendent Vickie Cartwright.
The additions will make the School Board more diverse. For years, it consisted of seven white women, one Black woman and one Hispanic woman, nearly all of whom identified as Democrats.
The new board has five white women, two Black men, one Hispanic man and one white man. Seven members of the non-partisan board are registered Democrats, and two are Republicans: DeSantis appointee Torey Alston and Fam, the newly elected social conservative.
“It will be diverse. It will have experienced and new members and will have multiple political leanings,” Zeman said. “My sense is this is going to be a highly functional board.”
A major goal new and old board members cited is to improve Broward schools from a B- to an A-rated district, based on test scores and other student achievement factors. Neighboring Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties have had the coveted A-rating from the state since 2018 but Broward was last an A in 2011.
“I believe the new School Board should be laser-focused on implementing our strategic plan to become an A-school district,” said Lori Alhadeff, recently re-elected to her second term.
Zeman said the district should focus on academic improvement, accountability and dealing with a 20,000-student enrollment decline, which would involve finding ways to entice students back and also closing or consolidating chronically under-enrolled schools.
“We have to recognize the perception that what we do is not top shelf,” Zeman said. “It’s good, but it’s not great. It could be great. It’s important to look at what we can do better.”
For years, Broward School Board has spoken in favor of spending most of their time talking about the core focus of student achievement. When the “reform board,” made of a majority of DeSantis appointees, took office in late August, Chairman Torey Alston pledged to spend 80% of the board’s time on student issues.
But those plans were derailed by discussions of a grand jury report on school construction, audits of vendors, questionable severance payments and an effort to fire Cartwright.
“There were some really good conversations around academics the first month, but in October, we got very off-track and started focusing more on adult behavior,” said board member Debbi Hixon, who was elected in 2020.
Holness, the cousin of former County Commissioner Dale Holness, said he too hopes to stay focused on students. He wants to help foster a culture of “support and kindness,” since many students have suffered hardships during the pandemic.
“I am looking forward to working with other board members to help our students recover from the COVID slide and have academic success,” he said in a text. “I will do everything I can to ensure that children are being prepared for the future in a safe and healthy learning environment.”
It’s unclear whether the effort to fire Cartwright, initially supported by Alston, Alhadeff and several departing board members, will gain traction with the new board.
At an Oct. 25 meeting, instead of firing her, the School Board gave Cartwright a long list of issues to improve within 90 days. These issues include grand jury findings, student achievement and a “toxic culture” within the district. None the new board members say firing Cartwright is a priority.
Fam urged the School Board at the Oct. 25 meeting to sever ties with Cartwright. But she’s now had a change of heart, having spoken with Cartwright since her election.
Fam said one issue she was initially angry at Cartwright about was implementing and enforcing a mask mandate that defied orders from the Department of Health and Department of Education.
Fam now acknowledges that Cartwright, who was personally opposed to the mandate, was following orders from a previous School Board.
“I want to go in with an open mind,” Fam said. “The most important thing is to have open lines of communication.”
Fam has complained that the previous School Board failed to listen to parents they disagreed with. But she said she likes how Alston, now serving as chairman, allows parents and community members to speak uninterrupted at board meetings.
She also said she wants to ensure the school district is following a new law that allows parents to challenge books they find objectionable. School administrators told principals last month to remove two books and restrict eight others to older students only, following complaints by the group Moms for Liberty.
Fam said she’s not sure the district handled the matter in a transparent way since Moms for Liberty members say they were unaware of the decision until they saw a memo circulating on social media.
She said she’s not calling for books to be banned but she wants them to be age appropriate.
“We’re calling for transparency and accountability,” she said.
Velez, although a registered Democrat, said he’s a political moderate who will listen to all sides. One of his first moves planned is to appoint Ryan Reiter, a DeSantis appointee on the current board who works for a construction company, as his appointee to the Facilities Task Force, a district watchdog committee.
He’s taken to social media asking who is interested in other committees and said he has gotten dozens of suggestions.
But whether Velez will actually get to stay on the board much past swearing-in remains unanswered.
Velez was convicted in 1995 of aggravated battery, a second-degree felony. He had his voting rights restored after DeSantis signed into law Amendment 4, a ballot initiative passed by voters in 2018.
The amendment guarantees the right to vote, but not the right to hold office, according to rules prepared by the Board of Clemency in March 2021.
DeSantis has publicly said he supports the right of felons who have voting rights restored to regain other rights too, but there’s no indication the law was changed to reflect that. The governor’s office has refused to comment.
Velez said he has a meeting scheduled with DeSantis and his wife, Casey, prior to being sworn in and hopes the issue will be resolved in his favor. He’s also formally applied for clemency, although that process has been slow for many other felons seeking to have their full rights restored.
“I’ve filled out my paperwork. I’m just going to let it take its course,” Velez said.