One of these three could become the next superintendent of Broward Schools. Who do you like?
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The Broward School Board picked three male, external candidates as finalists for the superintendent position on Tuesday — leaving out the most popular and only internal applicant, Valerie Wanza.
Out of the pool of seven semifinalists, the board advanced Peter Licata, a regional superintendent at Palm Beach County Schools; Sito Narcisse, the superintendent of East Baton Rouge School District in Louisiana; and Luis Solano, a deputy superintendent for the Detroit Public Schools Community District.
Most notably, the board didn’t back up Wanza, a longtime Broward Schools administrator, despite hearing from the public, including school principals and members of Broward’s Black community, who spoke in favor of her for more than an hour before the vote. Four employee groups and Interim Superintendent Earlean Smiley also have sent letters praising Wanza to board members.
FROM MAY 22: Broward School Board selects 7 semifinalists for superintendent. Who’s your favorite?
Lisa Maxwell, the president of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, vouched for Wanza.
“She’s committed her entire life to this district and to the children of this district,” she said. “I don’t care how hard you search. You can search the four corners of this world and you will not find an individual with that kind of devotion.”
Wanza, the acting chief of staff at Broward County Public Schools who has been with the district since 1992 and served as superintendent for a few days earlier this year after former superintendent Vickie Cartwright left, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Dr. Wanza has a tremendous amount of support ... She’s an amazing person, but unfortunately she didn’t get enough votes to move on to the finalists round,” said Lori Alhadeff, the board’s chair and district 4 representative, after the special meeting Tuesday.
How the board voted for finalists
Each of the nine School Board members selected three finalists, then David Azzarito, the district’s executive director of human resources and equity at the Broward school district, counted to see which candidate got the most votes.
Licata and Solano each received six votes. Narcisse got five votes.
And Wanza fell short with four. Alhadeff, Brenda Fam from district 6, Sarah Leonardi from district 3, Nora Rupert from district 7 and Allen Zeman, the countywide seat 8 representative, didn’t choose her.
To see who each board member selected, click here.
Licata, a native South Floridian, called the opportunity a “dream job” and said he wanted to elevate the Broward school district to an A-rated one, which hasn’t happened since 2011.
“I believe with my skill sets of culture, community and academic success, I will bring Broward to an A,” he said Tuesday after he meeting. “I’m very, very excited. I know it’s going to be challenging; we have a couple of good folks that I’m going up against. We’re going to do everything we can to secure this superintendency.”
Solano and Narcisse didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the School Board’s set schedule, finalists will participate in community focus groups and meet with the nine board members one-on-one on June 14. The board will name the next superintendent June 15.
Board members push to include Wanza
After they voted on the three finalists — Licata, Solano and Narcisse — Daniel Foganholi from district 1 tried to include the top four with the most votes, instead of just the top three.
“We asked for principal input, we got principal input. That group is here; let’s listen to it. ... I’m not saying that’s my pick ... I’ve made it very clear, I don’t know who the superintendent is going to be,” Foganholi said. “It’s nothing more complicated than that: Those people deserve to have a voice.”
But only Torey Alston from district 2 agreed with him, so the motion failed.
READ MORE: With few candidates, Broward School Board extends window to apply for superintendent post
In the meeting, Zeman knocked down Foganholi’s proposal questioning its ethical intention.
“I don’t think it passes the political interest test,” he said. “Instead of us setting an example of living by the rules that we set, I think that this motion would say, ‘if you don’t like the outcome, you can change the rules.’”
Fam echoed that sentiment and told board members they heard the principals’ input before the vote, so the latter group already had a voice.
Jeff Holness from district 5 also tried to carry out the voting again with four instead of three selections, but nobody seconded it so his proposal failed.
In recent weeks, both Alhadeff and Zeman have said they want an outsider with fresh ideas who will revolutionize the school district.
On Tuesday, Leonardi explained her reasoning for picking her three finalists: “The district does not need more scandal, does not need more backroom dealings, does not need more leadership that isn’t honest about mistakes and tries to cover them up, does not need division. And in order to sleep at night, I have to put forward names that I can be confident in.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2023 at 4:22 PM.
