‘I’m coming home.’ Broward School Board names Palm Beach administrator as its superintendent

The Broward School Board named a Palm Beach County school administrator who was born in Fort Lauderdale as its next superintendent Thursday, as the nation’s sixth-largest school district contends with declining enrollment, learning losses from the pandemic and a push by parents and politicians to inject politics into the classroom.

The board voted 7-2 to hire Peter Licata, 58, a regional superintendent in Palm Beach County Public Schools who attended first grade at McNab Elementary in Pompano Beach. The two dissenters were Torey Alston and Brenda Fam, who both voted for Sito Narcisse, the superintendent of the East Baton Rouge School District in Louisiana. On a second vote, the board voted unanimously to begin negotiating Licata’s contract.

The third candidate, Luis Solano, a deputy superintendent for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, did not receive any votes.

“This is a dream job. I’m coming home!” said Licata, who became a teacher after realizing at his father’s funeral the impact his dad had as an algebra teacher and basketball coach. “We get one shot at this and I’m not spending it on the sidelines. We get one shot to make an impact in something we love.”

The vote came after each board member had interviewed the three candidates Thursday. On Wednesday, principals, teachers and community members interviewed the three.

Jockeying for board support

At first, it wasn’t clear who would get the nod.

Narcisse had drawn support from board members Torey Alston, Brenda Fam and Allen Zeman. Board member Daniel Foganholi talked about delaying the vote and staying with interim superintendent Earlean Smiley, saying none of the three candidates had wowed him.

But board chair Lori Alhadeff, vice chair Debra Hixon and board member Sarah Leonardi were effusive in their praise of Licata, noting he attended Broward schools, had a deep knowledge of the educational issues in South Florida and would immediately make an impact.

“I believe he is the transformational leader that we were seeking for Broward County Public Schools. I believe through his words and actions that he will take us to become an A school district,” Alhadeff said in a press conference after the vote at the board’s Fort Lauderdale headquarters.

Alhadeff said Licata impressed her with his 90-day plan. She also said he had analyzed data from the district and came to them with ideas about what they need to do to become an A district, up from its current B grade.

Licata, a University of Miami graduate, began his teaching career at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Palm Beach County. He has been an administrator in Palm Beach County Public Schools since 1994.

LGBTQ criticism of one candidate

One thing that could have hurt Narcisse, whom former Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho had recommended: An event called “Day of Hope,” sponsored last year by the East Baton Rouge School District.

The event was advertised as a college and career fair and drew 2,000 high school students. In fact, the symposium was like a church service — it was held in a local church — with lectures about abstinence, suicide and rape, parents and students told local media.

Alhadeff said the board received an email from Forum for Equality, an LGTBQ human rights organization in Louisiana about the matter. Several of the board members discussed it Thursday. The board had paid $50,000 for McPherson & Jacobson, a Nebraska-based search firm, to conduct a national search.

Thursday’s vote caps a tumultuous time for the Broward School Board, which fired its previous superintendent, Vickie Cartwright, in a late-night move in November, rescinded her firing in December after a new board was elected and agreed to part ways with her in January.

Cartwright, who had been superintendent since February 2022 and interim superintendent for seven months before that, left the district in February with a payout of nearly $268,000 in severance.

Cartwright had replaced Robert Runcie, who resigned in 2021 after being arrested and charged with lying to a grand jury investigating the district over school safety compliance and cost overruns in its $1 billion school construction program. (Earlier this year, a judge dismissed the perjury charge against Runcie.)

The board will begin negotiating a contract with Licata. Cartwright had a three-year contract, earning $350,000 a year, which was slated to run through Dec. 31, 2024.

District challenges

Licata will be facing several key challenges in his new post. Among them:

▪ Reversing a 10-year decline in student enrollment, resulting in a loss of more than 18,000 students, much of that fueled by the disruption of schools during the pandemic. In the 2013-14 school year, student enrollment was 219,322 students in district schools; for the 2022-23 year, enrollment was just over 200,000. Charter school attendance had increased by 12,000 during this period.

▪ Navigating recent educational laws passed by the Florida Legislature, including banning teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity through eighth grade and making it easier for parents to object to school library books.

Case in point: Last month, the Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes barred elementary school students from accessing three library books and a poem after a parent objected to the works, which included The Hill We Climb, the poem recited by Amanda Gorman at President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration. (The titles have remained available for middle school students in the K-8 school.)

READ MORE: Poet speaks up after Miami-Dade school bars elementary students from reading her poem

▪ Contending with possible budget cuts after the Legislature passed a law earlier this year expanding the school voucher program, making all children, regardless of their families’ income levels, eligible for the taxpayer-funded vouchers, which can be used to pay for private schools. Public school advocates say the measure will impact public school funding.

The district, like other districts across the country, also has been dealing with declining scores in students’ standardized tests, particularly among the most vulnerable students, as a result of the pandemic’s learning losses.

Licata was undaunted by the challenges and noted he wanted to raise teacher salaries to offset the high cost of living in South Florida, resulting in teacher shortages.

When asked by Alston what he wanted his legacy to be, Licata replied: “That the word ‘gap’ doesn’t exist in this district.”

Later on, at the press conference, Licata elaborated: “We’re going to focus on kids first, to make sure that we communicate as one voice.”