Broward school district will soon have a new leader. School Board set to make decision
The Broward County School Board on Thursday is set to pick its next superintendent, ending a months-long search for a new leader after parting ways with its former school chief nearly six months ago.
School Board members will decide among three finalists: 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.
The three candidates on Wednesday faced a round of questioning by principals, teachers, parents, advocates and other community members on a wide range of topics.
Among the topics covered:
▪ Improving schools for students, teachers and parents in the nation’s sixth-largest district, which has about 200,000 students.
▪ Boosting enrollment amid a 10-year decline that accelerated during the pandemic and has resulted in more than 18,000 fewer students — an 8 percent loss in the district’s total enrollment since the 2013-14 school year.
▪ Augmenting school safety
▪ Navigating recent laws passed by the Florida Legislature, including barring teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity through eighth grade and facing book challenges from parents that have become controversial. Case in point: Last month’s decision by the Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes to bar elementary school students from reading three books and a poem after a parent objected to the works, which included the poem The Hill We Climb, written and recited by Amanda Gorman at President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration. (The titles were available for middle school students in the K-8 school.)
READ MORE: Poet speaks up after Miami-Dade school bars elementary students from reading her poem
A search for a new Broward superintendent began after the School Board and Vickie Cartwright, the district’s first woman superintendent, agreed to part ways in January after a tumultuous five months that began when Gov. Ron DeSantis removed four Broward School Board members in August 2022 and replaced them with four political allies. The governor cited a grand jury report that documented financial irregularities in the district’s $1 billion school bond construction program and school safety issues.
The board had hired Cartwright as interim superintendent in July 2021 and named her the permanent superintendent in February 2022. The board paid her nearly $268,000 in severance in February.
On Thursday, the three finalists will have one last chance to convince board members before they vote as to why they’re the best person to oversee the second-largest school district in Florida, after Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The meeting, which starts at 9 a.m., is open to the public and will also be livestreamed online.
The schedule
▪ What to expect: Each candidate will be interviewed separately by School Board members. After the interviews, the board will accept comments from the public before voting.
▪ Interview times: Narcisse will be interviewed at 10:45 a.m.; Licata will be interviewed at 10:45 a.m.; Solano will be interviewed at 12:30 p.m.
▪ Public comments: The School Board will open the floor to public comments around 2 p.m.
If you go
What: Broward School Board to pick new superintendent
When: 9 a.m. Thursday, June 15
Where: Kathleen C. Wright Building, 600 SE Third Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. The meeting will be in the boardroom.
Parking: Free guest parking is available at the Southeast Third Avenue parking lot.
How to watch online
The meeting will also be livestreamed online at https://www.becon.tv/live-stream
