Trails in the Sand by Peter Traceit, the Street Detective
Sifting through sand takes patience. Sometimes real treasures seep up and out and other times the reward is nothing but loads of broken, jagged shells or even shards of glass.
Ol’ Pete has been sifting through rubble trying to make heads or tails of the complexities of construction projects within Broward schools. In reviewing the most recent Grand Jury report, The Detective learned that while there is an effort to make the $900 million bond project and its construction seem insurmountable, there are dozens of other large school districts that have taken on similar bond projects involving even more money.
These school districts did not have the problems that continue to haunt Broward County Public Schools.
Traceit is digging and hopes to excavate a newly hired Chief Facilities Officer. It is one of the most important positions that Interim Superintendent, Earlean Smiley, left for Super Pete Licata to select.
The district has been without a Chief Facilities Officer for well over two years (maybe three) and this fact is a major discussion point of why construction projects are way behind and over cost.
Super Pete has a great incentive to hire the best for this position as it could earn him a $10,000 salary bonus. But with the rumors of shady, back door dealings among contractors, subcontractors, greedy advocates, and secret LLCs, taking on the construction clean-up will be quite the task. It will require someone with a great deal of integrity and experience to see and smell the manure before being covered in it. Ol’ Pete will wait and see if the hired Chief Facilities Officer can keep his/her eyes open and their nose clean.
To ol’ Pete’s shock, but not a surprise, the School Board voted down Board Member, Alan Zeman’s proposal to increase teacher salaries to $100,000. While it sounded good, the devil was in the details and Zeman failed miserably at being clear from the onset of what the $100,000 entailed.
The public had questions, yet Zeman had no real clear and compelling answers.
How would these raised salaries be paid for and how would they be sustained over time?
Like many others, Ol’ Pete’s understanding was unclear if the $100,000 was an overall average salary for all teachers or would even a first-year teacher make the hundred grand. Did the magic $100,000 number include benefits, like insurance or would it be the old bait and switch where the district gives the teachers the money and then require them to pay for things like their own insurance?
Was this $100,000 all salary or did parts of this include bonuses?
If you recall, Ol’ Pete uncovered during the marketing of the referendum two years ago that bonuses are not salary, and they are not considered in the calculation of final retirement income.
And what of other employees?
While teachers work hard and deserve a raise, there are other hard-working employees whose salaries are well below teachers and are need of an increase.
In the end, there were only four votes for the motion to raise teacher salaries to $100,000: Zeman, Daniel Foganholi, Debra Hixon and Jeff Holness.
The prevailing votes against were Board Chair Lori Alhadeff, Torey Alston, Brenda Fam, Sara Leonardi and Nora Rupert.
Pete chuckled because as only Alston can do, a lifeline was dredged from the sand giving Zeman an opportunity to reset and bring back a more thorough presentation and plan at a later date for consideration.
The Detective wants to caution Zeman of the rumblings in the sand around the personal incentive he may have to elevate the salary of teachers. State law limits Board members’ salaries to that of a beginning teacher. If passed, this would also provide an eventual lucrative salary increase to Board members.
Ol Pete is wondering… could all of this advocacy for teachers actually be a dirty deal in the makings for a Board member salary increase?
Traceit’s sources are telling Ol Pete that even so, Zeman doesn’t intend to enjoy the benefit of a salary increase for long. He has his eyes set on a roomier political seat in Tallahassee or quite possibly Washington, D.C.
After studying Zeman, Ol’ Pete is still not sure what drives him more, the money or the power. Maybe, it is both. Be warned, it’s a dangerous cocktail that has drunken many into a stupor that they couldn’t sober from.
The drama continues and the chirren ain’t arrived yet. But Ol’ Pete will continue scurrying the sand, digging for clues, and bringing the news you can use.
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