Runcie legacy still a challenge for Broward school district

Robert Runcie hasn’t been Broward County’s school superintendent for nearly a year. But Runcie remains a continuing issue for his successor, Vickie Cartwright.

The latest example came last weekend. The Sun Sentinel reported that Runcie and two other ex-school district administrators wrote a report for the group Chiefs for Change — where Runcie now works — detailing the 2021 ransomware attack on the district. At the time, the Runcie administration kept the attack secret from the public.

This new revelation comes two months before the district will ask voters in the Aug. 23 primary to increase and extend a property tax. Revenue would go toward the operating budget.

The outcome may turn on whether Cartwright can show that she has begun to change the insider culture that Runcie created. Cartwright also must deal with the hostility to public education that Republicans have stoked.

Brian Katz, the district’s former security chief, and Philip Dunn, the former chief information officer, helped to write the report. They started Safer School Solutions.

According to its website, the company’s mission is “to create safer environments for students and staff through evaluation and accountability.” Katz and Dunn apparently didn’t believe in accountability when they suppressed disclosure of the Broward ransomware attack.

Runcie also helped to write the report, which covers the attack, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting and the district’s COVID19 response. Runcie is now interim leader of Chiefs for Change, a Washington, D.C.-based education advocacy group.

Safer School Solutions got $1 million that went through Chiefs for Change, which sent the report to its members. So Runcie, Katz and Dunn profited from material they did not share with the public in Broward County.

Chiefs for Change says Runcie “is nationally recognized for his expertise in, among other things, ‘communication’ and ‘crisis management’ and for ‘building effective leadership teams.’ ” Let’s check the record.

In 2019, the Sun Sentinel won the Pulitzer Prize for what judges called its coverage of “failures by school officials before and after” the Stoneman Douglas shooting. Those failures included an attempt to cover up the district’s mishandling of the shooter that left the district complicit in the massacre.

It was typical of the Runcie culture. For all his success at raising graduation rates and closing achievement gaps, Runcie’s priority was his image. His communications director, who moonlighted at her own public relations firm, existed more to dodge reporters’ questions, not answer them.

Runcie especially angered the commission investigating the Stoneman Douglas shooting.

Pinellas County Sheriff Robert Gualtieri, the commission’s chairman, criticized Runcie for trying to conduct a separate investigation, no doubt to produce a narrative more favorable to Runcie.

So credit Cartwright with inviting Gualtieri to review the district’s progress in complying with school safety policies. Her goal, Cartwright told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board in late May, is to make Broward “the gold standard.”

Gualtieri is impressed. Just after Cartwright’s comment, he said of the district, “It’s a totally different climate now. A totally different culture. One of accountability.”

Complying with state laws will remain essential. The Legislature just extended the commission until 2026 and added safety policies that districts must follow.

Cartwright’s next challenge will come with release of the grand jury report that Gov. Ron DeSantis sought after the Stoneman Douglas shooting. It investigated “whether (Broward) school officials committed — and continue to commit — fraud and deceit by mismanaging, failing to use, and diverting funds from multi-million dollar bonds specifically solicited for school safety initiatives” and “whether school officials violated — and continue to violate — state law by systematically underreporting incidents of criminal activity to the Department of Education.”

Runcie is charged with lying to the grand jury. Barbara Myrick, the school board’s former attorney, is charged with illegally disclosing information from the grand jury.

Last week, in mostly denying petitions to redact portions of the report, the Fourth District Court of Appeal said it would include recommendations that DeSantis remove or otherwise sanction school board members. The ruling did not name which board members.

The report could affect board elections in August. It could affect the school tax vote. It will show again how much damage Runcie and his acolytes did and how crucial it is for Cartwright to repair that damage.