Palm Beach County leader gets the top job in Broward County Schools. What to know

Palm Beach County Schools south area superintendent Peter Licata has been named superintendent of Broward County Schools, the sixth-largest school district in the country.

The school board voted on Thursday to hire Licata into a position that's been a political flashpoint since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Then-superintendent Robert Runcie was ousted after he was accused of lying to the grand jury investigating the massacre.

Licata, a Broward native, worked in Palm Beach County as the principal of Olympic Heights High School and the district's choice program before he became the superintendent of the district's southernmost region in 2019. He's been with the district since 1994.

Licata will replace the most recent superintendent, Vickie Cartwright. She stepped down in February after a rocky tenure that included a scathing Stoneman Douglas grand jury report, Gov. Ron DeSantis removing four school board members and a clash with the state Department of Education over a mask mandate. She was at the helm for 17 months.

With more than 250,000 students and 241 schools, the Broward school district is the second-largest in the state and sixth in the country. Palm Beach County's public school system ranks fifth in the state and 10th in the nation, with more than 190,000 students and 180 campuses.

Licata has been on the hunt for a superintendent job for the past five years. Since 2018, he's been named a finalist at least four times in districts across Florida. He was even named a finalist in Broward County's 2022 search for a superintendent before he withdrew.

He's also thrown his hat into the ring in Palm Beach County. Licata was among the candidates passed over in 2015 when the board chose Robert Avossa.

From 2022: 2 Palm Beach County school leaders make top 4 cut for Broward superintendent job

Upheaval in the Broward County school board, superintendent role

Licata will take the reins on the heels of a tumultuous time in Broward County schools.

Runcie left the position in 2021 after he was indicted on perjury charges. He was accused of lying to a grand jury that investigated the Stoneman Douglas shooting, which left 17 people dead.

The charge was dropped in April.

Last August, DeSantis removed four Broward school board members from their jobs after a grand jury report of DeSantis appointees found they'd acted with “incompetence and neglect of duty."

Board Chair Laurie Rich Levinson, Vice Chair Patricia Good and members Donna Korn and Ann Murray were ousted.

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The governor replaced the four female board members with four men. Torey Alston, one of the appointees, remains on the board.

DeSantis' other appointees, Kevin Tynan, Manual Serrano and Ryan Reiter, were replaced by voters in the November election.

Licata was one of three finalists for the superintendent position. The other two finalists were Sito Narcisse, the superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana, and Luis B. Solano, deputy superintendent in Detroit.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work: Subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Peter Licata gets Broward County Schools Superintendent job