Runcie pleads not guilty to perjury charge; school board to take up his resignation deal
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Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie entered a written plea of not guilty Wednesday to a perjury charge handed up by a statewide grand jury earlier this month.
The plea comes the day after Runcie, 59, agreed to resign as the top administrator of the Broward school district during a School Board meeting Tuesday evening.
Runcie said his resignation was not due to the charge against him, but rather he wanted the district to move forward after being blamed for contributing to the conditions leading up to the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 killed and 17 wounded.
“I cannot and will not put myself above the needs of our children,” he said during the board meeting.
The school district’s general counsel, Barbara Myrick, 72, also told the School Board Tuesday night she would resign. Myrick was indicted by the same grand jury; her charge is related to disclosing material from the grand jury proceedings, which are secret.
Both were arrested last Wednesday by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents. Prosecutors with the Office of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody are prosecuting the case.
The School Board will convene a special meeting at 11 a.m. Thursday to authorize School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood and the district’s legal counsel to negotiate with Runcie and Myrick over their termination agreements.
Runcie makes $356,000 a year; Myrick makes $220,000 annually.
By entering the written plea of not guilty, Runcie waived his right to appear before a Broward circuit judge on May 12 to formally answer for the charge against him.
Runcie’s attorneys filed another motion to dismiss the charge Wednesday, saying the information contained in the April 15 indictment and a subsequent filing from the statewide prosecutor is “vague, indefinite and uncertain as to embarrass and hinder the Defendant in the preparation of Defendant’s defense in the event of conviction or acquittal, would subject the Defendant to multiple trials on the same circumstances, jeopardy failing to attach.”
The lawyers had already filed a 12-page motion to dismiss last week, based on the indictment, which did not specifically say what statement or statements Runcie made during his March 31 and April 1 testimony to the grand jury that prosecutors say are untrue.
Runcie’s attorneys Wednesday also filed a demand for discovery, wanting to know what evidence prosecutors have in the case.
Prosecutor Richard Mantei, in court papers filed Monday, said Runcie lied about contacting at least one person on a witness list for another case the grand jury was investigating. That case resulted in the indictment of the school district’s former technology chief, Tony Hunter, in January on charges he steered lucrative contracts to a friend’s company, bypassing the bidding process.
Gov. Ron Desantis authorized the grand jury in February 2019, a month after he was sworn into office. It was investigating whether school districts were complying with state school safety laws that the Legislature passed after the Parkland shootings and whether they were using funds earmarked for school safety for other purposes.
Runcie’s supporters and attorneys have denounced Runcie’s indictment as political. DeSantis has said he had looked into removing Runcie after the Parkland shootings but that state law didn’t give him the authority, as Runcie was hired by the School Board and was not an elected official.
He and other critics, including some family members of the Parkland victims, blame Runcie for contributing to the conditions that led to shooter Nikolas Cruz, a former Parkland student, targeting his old school.
Specifically, Runcie was instrumental in implementing an initiative that placed students who commit certain misdemeanors in an alternative school rather than involving the police.
School officials transferred Cruz from Stoneman Douglas in 2017 to an alternative school over disciplinary issues.
Runcie issued a video statement Tuesday morning, hours before he agreed to step down, saying he would be cleared of any wrongdoing by the time the case is through.
“I am confident that I will be vindicated, and I intend to continue to carry out my responsibilities as superintendent with the highest degree of integrity and moral standards as I have done for nearly 10 years,” he said in the video.
The School Board is expected to discuss Thursday whether an interim superintendent will be appointed while the district interviews new candidates for the job.
The leadership upheaval comes as teachers and staff prepare for the fall semester, when all students in the public school system are required to return to in-person learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic had taken its toll on the district — the nation’s sixth largest — with Runcie saying earlier this year that nearly a third of its roughly 204,000 students were at risk of failing due to the challenges of learning amid the pandemic.
The School Board hired Runcie in 2011. In November 2017, the board extended his contract for the second time, which was set to expire in June 2023.
Michael Burke, a labor attorney hired by the school district, told board members there were three options for Runcie to leave office before his contract expired. He could be terminated with or without cause, or he could negotiate a separation agreement.
Terminating him without cause, however, would be costly to the district. It would require Runcie to be paid a severance worth 20 weeks of his salary and be compensated for any unused vacation and sick time.
The embattled administrator survived a previous attempt to fire him in March 2019, led by School Board Member Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the shootings.
Alhadeff at the time cited what she said was the district’s mishandling of an $800 million capital improvements bond; Runcie deciding not to implement an independent office of the inspector general, which was recommended by a 2011 grand jury report; and Runcie failing to complete evaluations of senior staff.
By a vote of 6-3, Runcie kept his job.
Although Tuesday’s meeting was classified as a “workshop,” meaning no action was to be taken by the School Board on Runcie’s job, members’ comments made it clear his support among those on the dais had weakened in recent years, although only Alhadeff recommended his termination.
Some, like Donna Korn, who came to Runcie’s defense two years ago, on Tuesday recommended he at least be suspended with pay due to the indictment, which is the protocol for other district employees accused of a crime.
“I do believe in consistency for taking action,” she said.
Even board members who said they continue to fully support Runcie said his resignation may be a step in moving the district out from under the shadow of the Parkland tragedy.
“I’m really at a loss for words. This is a sad day for Broward County children,” School Board Member Laurie Rich Levinson told her colleagues. “This has nothing to do with education. Nothing. I don’t think it’s the way it should be, but I hope healing can begin now.”
