With few candidates, Broward School Board extends window to apply for superintendent post
Amid concerns that not enough people had applied to be the next superintendent of the sixth-largest school district in the country, the Broward School Board reopened the application window Tuesday so more candidates can add their names to the list — including a sitting superintendent from Las Vegas who has connections to South Florida.
Board Chair Lori Alhadeff told her fellow board members that Jesús Jara, the superintendent at Clark County School District — the fifth-largest school district in the country — contacted her and said he wanted to apply. That ignited discussion about whether to add only his name to the applicant pool, or reopen the search for him to apply as well as others.
After about three hours of debate, the board voted 8-1 to reopen the application window from Tuesday to next Tuesday. Board member Torey Alston, from district 2, cast the lone dissenting vote because he wanted to reopen the search for longer.
“If you’re going to do it right, open it up for two weeks, three weeks so we can conversations with different applicants around the country,” Alston said after the meeting.
FROM LAST WEEK: Only 15 qualify for Broward superintendent job
“The good news is I think we’re absolutely headed in the right direction, and I think all nine members of the board are collectively in the same place,’’ he added. “We might disagree on should it be one week, two weeks, three weeks, but I think collectively we all want to find the right person for Broward County Public Schools.”
What does the hiring timeline look like?
Here’s the new timeline the board approved for the superintendent search:
May 16: Deadline to apply
May 22: Special School Board meeting to vote on semifinalists
May 26: Deadline for semifinalists to submit videos answering some questions
May 30: Special School Board meeting to pick finalists
June 14: Finalists participate in community focus groups and meet with all nine board members one-on-one
June 15: School Board chooses its next superintendent
However, board member Daniel Foganholi, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the district 1 seat in December, said he doesn’t want to rush the process.
“I’m not looking for a superintendent, I’m looking for the superintendent,” he said.
His colleague Allen Zeman, from the countywide seat 9, warned that waiting too long could be detrimental because the school year starts in August and most superintendents want to be set way before then. He added it’s “unlikely” the application deadline could get extended further.
“Institutionally, superintendents get real reluctant after the first of July to move to another job, just because they feel some compassion and some level of caring for the district that they’re leaving, and it just gets harder day-by-day to hire after July 1,” he said.
About two dozen applicants so far
The application window originally opened March 1 and closed April 27. During those two months, 26 people applied for the top job at the Broward school district, which serves about 260,000 students, employs about 27,000 people and maintains an operating budget of about $2.8 billion. The former superintendent, Vickie Cartwright, who mutually parted ways with the board in January, signed a contract of nearly three years at an annual salary of $350,000.
Last week, board members and a search firm executive hypothesized some reasons why the role attracted few takers — including the tense relationship between DeSantis and state educators, the chaotic departure of Cartwright and the Sunshine Law exposing applicants’ names early on in the process.
Out of those 26 applicants, only 15 met the requirements like a master’s degree and computer skills. In January 2022, when the Miami-Dade school district searched for a new superintendent, 16 people applied during a seven-day application window.
In the past week, Keith Oswald, chief of equity and wellness at Palm Beach County Schools, withdrew his name from the running, said David Azzarito, the district’s executive director of human resources and equity at the Broward school district, bringing the total qualified candidates to 14.
More applicants to come?
Last Tuesday, some Broward School Board members, particularly Alston, raised concerns about the quality and quantity of the superintendent candidates. Alston described the group as “junior varsity” and said he liked “one and a half, maybe two and a half” out of the 26.
“I’m hopeful we’ll add more to the 26,” Alston said Tuesday after the board agreed to take more resumes. He said he has been talking to a handful of other potential candidates and hopes they’ll come forward, despite the hesitations.
Zeman also said he wants more names to consider.
“I feel excited,” he said, mentioning Jara, from Las Vegas. “Maybe that’s the icebreaker. Maybe we’ll have some from other top-sized school districts that decide to come here and take this amazing job that we have available for somebody.”
As for the DeSantis concerns he cited last week, Zeman said applicants could view that as a short-term issue.
“If you’re thinking of being an administrator or a superintendent for five or 10 years, there’s a lot of political pendulums swinging back and forth in the state,” he said.
Can’t judge people off of a ‘piece of paper,’ board member says
Zeman added that Jara didn’t apply earlier because he was leading some negotiations with the Nevada Legislature concerning student funding, but he feels “that’s in a good place now.”
Jara worked as the superintendent of Monroe County Public Schools for a year from 2011 to 2012. He then worked as deputy superintendent at Orange County Public Schools in Central Florida for nearly six years, until 2018, when he left to lead Clark Schools.
The list of qualified applicants also includes a notable internal one: Valerie Wanza, the acting chief of staff at Broward County Public Schools who’s been with the district since 1992 and served as superintendent for a few days earlier this year after Cartwright left. But Alhadeff, who represents district 4, said she wants an external candidate who will “change the culture.”
Debra Hixon, the board’s vice chair who occupies the countywide seat 9, cautioned her colleagues from discarding anyone too quickly.
“What we have is a piece of paper,” Hixon said, referring to the candidates’ resumes. “We need to hear more.”
Since last week, the board received more data on the candidates, including reference letters.
Board member Sarah Leonardi, from district 3, said she said some of the comments last week were “unfair” to the original qualified candidates.
“We do have candidates who were described as transformational, innovative,” she said, adding the additional information showed a “much more rounded picture.”
