Trails in the Sand by Peter Traceit, the Street Detective
Ol Peter Traceit has been caught riding dirty this week dragging for clues in the sand in another school district, Miami-Dade County. The 305 sandscape required some deeper digging because The Detective doesn’t have the established tunnels to slide through like in Broward.
But as The Street Detective excavates the situation, what is emerging from the sands are all tying together nicely and making a whole lot of sense.
It is reported that there are now two Dr. Cartwrights working in the Dirty South, perhaps trying to create a Ponderosa, one in Broward and another in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Sources are telling Detective Traceit that Deputy Superintendent of School Operations, Judy Marte, called in a few favors in her old stomping ground to get Dr. Carl Cartwright hired as a Director in the School Operations division in Miami-Dade County as a favor to her boss, Dr. Vickie Cartwright. Carl Cartwright is the husband of Super Cartwright.
Dr. Carl Cartwright was superintendent in the Berlin Area School district, a small school district serving approximately 1,600 students. But no sooner than the ink was dry on his wife’s contract in Broward, Carl Cartwright crawled out of the Berlin sand dunes in June 2022 after serving three years as the Superintendent.
The Street Detective was reminded that Marte has ties in the Miami-Dade school system. She worked there for many years as Lead in the District’s Finance department before coming to Broward to work as Chief Finance Officer under Super Runcie.
If the dirt Ol’ Peter has sifted through turns out to be clean, it would make sense why Super Cartwright went out on a gritty limb to save Marte after she threw three other district administrators off a cliff. If you recall, Super Cartwright was advised to act on staff mentioned in the Grand Jury Report. Without the slightest hesitation, she had the funeral for three of four…, all but Marte.
Ol’ Peter has dragged through every page of the Grand Jury report, and the cover Cartwright gave Marte could have been spun to similarly advocate others, but she chose to only protect one.
Good sources are telling Traceit that Marte was instrumental in getting the Super’s husband the job as Director of business services, accountability and performance around safety mandates related to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. Dr. Carl Cartwright will lead the district’s School Environmental Safety Incident Reporting system for tracking incidents of crime and violence.
Marte is known for using her influence to get people jobs that they are not necessarily qualified for. Traceit is told she was instrumental in ensuring that Alan Strauss qualified for the Chief of Human Resource position under Super Runcie though Board members and others in HR believed he did not meet qualifications. Strauss has been since removed as Chief of HR and is now Region Superintendent for South Area Schools.
The Detective is more convinced than ever that Super Cartwright isn’t the tallest bulb in the garden. Her husband will earn $91,000 as Director. The Super is paid $350,000 plus a healthy incentive package. If it all comes together, to defy the advisement of the State Safety Office and save Marte because of a job that pays $250,000 less that hers just doesn’t make dollars and cents. How do you risk $350,000 for $91,000?
Traceit has long suspected Super Cartwright has trouble reading the room. She probably would not realize the gravity of her situation even as a dump truck of sand is being poured down over her head.
Her response to the most serious situations reminds me of the parable of the frog in warm water. As it goes, a frog is placed in a pot of warm water on a stove, being content with the cozy situation, swimming around happily and stretching its legs. The water temperature in the pot slowly begins to rise until it gets to an eventual boil. But the frog is none the wiser until it is too late.
For Super Cartwright to continue to believe she can do what she wants, when she wants and to whomever she wants despite rules, regulations, practice, policy, procedure, statute, or directive is a recipe for her eventual explosion in a pressure cooker. She is too smart for her own good. Unbeknownst to her, the possibility of saving Marte because of a favor she did for her husband will probably have her dragged out over the river and through the muddy woods to resignation or no renewal of her contract. Could the Ponderosa become the lil house on the prairie.
Ol’ Traceit will continue dragging the trail for clues.
