‘A hell of a fight’: Broward Schools accepts earlier reopening after state agrees to it

After the state education commissioner pushed them to reopen classrooms earlier than they had planned or risk losing millions in funding, Broward County School Board members shaved a few days off the initial reopening date, pushing it up to Oct. 9, from Oct. 14.

During a more than five-hour emergency meeting Thursday, the board voted unanimously to welcome back students in a staggered start, from Friday, Oct. 9 to Thursday, Oct. 15.

The final reopening proposal calls for Oct. 8 as a teachers’ planning day and allows students to return as follows:

• Oct. 9 and Oct. 12: Pre-K to second grade, and special needs students.

• Oct. 13-14: third to sixth, and ninth grades.

• Oct. 15: All other students.

According to recent surveys, about a third of students have indicated they would return to in-person learning and about a third of teachers have indicated they will seek unpaid leave or ADA accommodations to work from home.

Before the vote, the district’s CFO, Judith Marte, acknowledged an already “disgustingly low” budget. She warned the district would lose anywhere from $67 million to $315 million in funding if it doesn’t comply with State Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s demand.

Marte added the loss could mean at least 4,300 layoffs.

At the top of the meeting, Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco spoke during public comment and said she did not believe the state would actually take away the funds. She characterized Corcoran’s actions as “unconstitutional.”

“I do not believe that they can legally chokehold and threaten,” she said.

Timeline moved back and forth

Originally, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie proposed Oct. 5 as a reopening date. But citing unresolved issues in the plan, board members agreed on Sept. 22 to reopen the schools on Oct. 14 and finish by Oct. 20.

However, Corcoran sent a letter to the district on Friday, expressing “grave concerns” about those dates. He asked board members to comply with their original state-approved reopening plan, and reopen by Oct. 5. If schools were not ready, he asked the district to provide detailed explanations on a school-by-school basis as to why that’s not possible.

The district and board replied that same day, explaining they intended to comply with their plan, which “specifically outlined a return to the physical campus upon completion of the current quarter ending October 16, 2020.”

Corcoran wrote a second letter, dated Monday, reiterating his demands.

Runcie presented to the School Board a new timeline that he said Corcoran approved, calling for a staggered return from Oct. 6 to Oct. 12.

“On principle, it makes sense to fight this, but sometimes you have to lose to win,” he said.

‘Peanut butter and Vienna sausages and sardines’

Board members were not happy with Corcoran’s actions, which they described as “bullying” from the state.

Board member Rosalind Osgood said many “are very unhappy with the toxic ungodly approach of governance,” citing the actions of Corcoran and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who opened up the state on Friday to all businesses, despite Florida adding new COVID-19 cases a day.

On Thursday, the state confirmed 2,628 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total cases to more than 709,000, the third highest in the country.

She also said DeSantis had “double standards” for extending a March 20 executive order that permitted local governments to meet and vote virtually until Nov. 1, but forcing schools to open for face-to-face learning before then.

Osgood said she’s not afraid of funding cuts because it wouldn’t be the first time that people would eat “peanut butter and Vienna sausages and sardines.”

She refused to vote in favor of the Oct. 6 reopening: “No, no, no and no. Absolutely not!”

Like Osgood, School Board member Laurie Rich Levinson also indicated she would vote ‘no.’

“You cannot hold money over our heads and think we’re not going to do what’s in the best interest for our families and students,” she says. “You’re going to have a hell of a fight.”

School Board member Patricia Good criticized the state’s “threatening” correspondence as “irresponsible in my opinion and totally unnecessary.”

“It has put us in a situation where I think they just want us to fail,” she said.

Good also asked General Counsel Barbara Myrick and the board to think about ways to challenge the state’s “overstepping” in the future.

“Because if they did it with this, they’re going to do it with something else,” she said, shaking her head.

‘Olive branch:’ New dates suddenly approved

In the middle of the meeting, however, School Board Chair Donna Korn interrupted and announced Corcoran had agreed to accept a new timeline that ended up being the official one, from Oct. 9 to Oct. 15. Runcie later confirmed.

When reached Thursday afternoon after the vote, Taryn Fenske, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, emailed the following statement (with the boldface and underlined type):

“The Commissioner will approve the dates Broward voted on as a revision to their re-opening plan, but he does not support it.”

Korn thanked Corcoran for listening to the Broward meeting and agreeing to push the first day of reopening from Oct. 6 to Oct. 9, “but it doesn’t change the fact that an overstep has occurred,” she said. Other members echoed Korn’s sentiment.

Board member Robin Bartleman complimented the School Board for its initial “firm stand” that encouraged the commissioner to come back with a later date.

“Because that olive branch was extended to us, I feel we definitely need to take it and not put the district at risk,” Bartleman said. “With that being said, we need to continue to fight to protect local control.”