A flawed search for Broward schools leader | Steve Bousquet
FORT LAUDERDALE — It’s tough enough to get five of the nine Broward County School Board members to agree on the time of day, and to bring cohesion to the community, their next big decision ought to require nearly unanimous agreement. It’s that important.
But choosing a Broward school superintendent is fraught with peril. It’s one more task of many that this system can’t get right. Not so long ago, under a former superintendent, the board was marked by pro-Runcie and anti-Runcie factions.
After Robert Runcie resigned under pressure, the board appointed an interim replacement, Vickie Cartwright, fired her and un-fired her before a mutually agreed-upon separation, and named a new interim leader, Earlean Smiley. That’s three chiefs in less than two years. See how easy it is?
Next Thursday, following two long days of interviews, the board is scheduled to choose one of three finalists to run America’s sixth-largest school district. Nobody in his right mind should take this job on a 5-to-4 vote. At least seven of nine members, preferably all nine, should firmly reach a consensus.
But this search is already flawed.
The School Board hired a search firm, McPherson & Jacobson, and surrendered too much authority to the Omaha-based company, including logistics of the critical vote.
“They have taken the lead on process. It was not our process. It was theirs,” Smiley said on May 30.
If the School Board follows the search firm’s advice, the superintendent will be chosen through a consensus-building system known as ranked choice voting. Each board member will rank finalists as first, second or third choices (lowest score wins) before taking a final vote.
It is possible, if the board is closely divided over a top pick, that the candidate rated No. 2 among most board members will get this job. If the search ends in an unpopular choice, the public will never accept it, and some board members already don’t like it.
“I’m actually very disappointed in this process,” said board member Brenda Fam, objecting to ranked choice voting. She decried a lack of transparency in the search and said she learned relevant facts about finalists not from a $50,000 outside search but “from social media or a newspaper article, for God’s sake.”
Board member Sarah Leonardi described winnowing of the field as “playing numbers games.”
The search firm Google-searched the semi-finalists, left out vital information from background reports, and did not show up for a critical May 30 meeting where the field was narrowed to three: Peter Licata of Palm Beach County, Luis Solano of Detroit, and Sito Narcisse of East Baton Rouge, La. It’s far, far short of a knockout field.
Narcisse, 47, has worked at four different districts in the past decade and is the only finalist who’s currently a superintendent. For two-plus years, he has run a district of 41,000 students. (Broward is more than six times as large.)
Still, board member Allen Zeman calls Narcisse “head and shoulders” above his two rivals.
In Louisiana, Narcisse approved a “Day of Hope” career fair at a church that brought protests from parents and the ACLU and may yet trigger a lawsuit. The event has never been fully explained, and an internal report about it remains secret. Narcisse should face penetrating questions about the career fair during interviews next week
Broward’s next superintendent will encounter a circus atmosphere with endless talk of hidden political agendas, rumor and innuendo.
All three finalists will be interviewed publicly by board members, a group of principals and a panel of 18 community representatives.
Each board member asked two people to submit questions to the finalists. The group includes a student, a teacher, parent volunteers, teacher union representatives, a former board member (Lori Parrish), a lobbyist for the charter school industry (Ed Pozzuoli), a Plantation council member (Louis Reinstein) and two people who provide an outspoken presence at board meetings, Vicente Thrower of Pompano Beach and Deidre Ruth of Hollywood.
Ruth, a critic of COVID-19 testing in schools and Fam appointee, pleaded with the School Board on May 30 to stop the search because of its flaws. She’s now a part of it.
Politics plays a role here, as it always does. As many as five board members could face the voters in 2024. They are Vice Chair Debbie Hixon, who’s elected countywide, and district board members Torey Alston, Daniel Foganholi, Jeff Holness and Leonardi (Alston and Foganholi were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis).
If this hire goes off the rails, and history suggests it could, it will be a major political issue in the next election.
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on Twitter @stevebousquet.
