A Message From The Publisher
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
For the last six months, the Westside Gazette has been sounding the alarm about the Broward superintendent of schools. Cartwright’s appointment, though gotten under questionable circumstances, could have been one for the history books.
During the October 17th Board meeting, the nine Board members were tasked with reviewing Cartwright’s evaluation. It did not happen without conflict as one Board member, Ryan Reiter, rated her as highly effective when he was not on the board during the window of her evaluation. At the end of discussions, it was agreed that Reiter’s evaluation would be eliminated.
Board Chair, Torey Alston, made a motion that was seconded and passed 5 to 4 that the Board would not accept the evaluation. This has never happened before and there was uncertainty by some of the Board members about what it actually means.
Much speculation continued until a Board item was posted on Friday which detailed an alleged 15 points outlining cause for the superintendent’s removal.
Board members Debra Hixon, Sara Leonardi and Nora Rupert were in strong support of Cartwright, though Leonardi served her with the harshest criticism in her evaluation. They all spoke to knowing the heart of the superintendent and vouched for her good nature.
However, when Board member Daniel Foganholi shared his opinion on the toxic culture of the district and stated that the Board doesn’t want a competent superintendent but rather one they can control, the ladies responded angrily. Leonardi said she was offended and professed that Foganholi doesn’t know what is in their hearts. Following that line of thinking, then how do they know what is in Cartwright’s heart since they claim that “what is in her heart” makes them want to give her more time to prove herself.
Ladies, you can’t have it both ways.
Fast forward a week later, dozens of people showed up to give their input regarding the superintendent’s fate. It was mostly down racial and party lines.
There were a lot of “Johnny and Jane Come Lately’s” whose themes were mostly around the Republican Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Board should not be able to make the decision to remove the superintendent two weeks prior to an election. Some who were in favor of the superintendent spoke about her being a strong supporter of the arts and many said that the district needed to maintain stability. There were several letters written by community members of Osh Kosh, Wisconsin; however, Cartwright had a rocky superintendency in Osh Kosh where administrators called for her removal via a no confidence vote.
Contrarily, those in favor of her termination spoke specifically about Cartwright’s failed leadership around promises she has made and not seen them through. They spoke of poor communication, inept hiring practices, targeting specific groups of people for demotion and termination and not being respectful and proactive with schools in poor and minority communities. Many also spoke to their disappointment around the partisan way the Democratic Party has responded to Superintendent Cartwright as a White woman but has remained silent on issues that the Black community has long been crying out for attention and action.
The Board also discussed the fate of their two other employees: the chief auditor, Joris Jabouin and Attorney Marilyn Batista. Jabouin recently provided the Board with an update on the progress of an audit involving the company, PCG and one of its employees, Jillian Haring and the district. He reported that there is currently no findings of inappropriate relations, but the audit is incomplete. But rumors are the audit is a sham. Most of the inappropriate communications between district staff and Haring took place on personal phone devices, but most employees are denying that they use their personal phones for school board business, and therefore they have not been turned over to be checked. Might the Broward Principals and Assistants (BPAA) Public record request yield better information for the audit?
General Counselor, Marilyn Batista, continues to perform the job as interim. She and Board Chair Alston often spar over Robert’s Rules of Order. In today’s Board meeting, Alston wanted to introduce a substitute motion in place of the main motion. Batista sparred with Alston and said the main motion had to be voted on or tabled before addressing the substitute motion. Yet Robert’s Rule supports Alston in that “a substitute motion changes how a main motion is handled, and it is voted on before the main motion.”
Additionally, Alston often refers to Batista as Madam Parliamentarian and today she gently, yet assuredly corrected him in his reference to her as parliamentarian.
The Board meeting continues and the fate of Batista, Cartwright and Jabouin still hung in the wings at the printing of this story.
But whatever the fate, justice delayed is not justice denied. The Westside Gazette will continue to watch and hold the Board (whoever they may be), the Superintendent and staff accountable to our children in our communities.
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