Trails in the Sand by Peter Traciet, the Street Detective
It’s officially a new year, but the dirt is not at all new. There’s lots of it and Ol’ Peter is sliding through.
To Pete’s surprise, a principal turned county commissioner in Tamarac has faced some challenges. This past November, Jamaican-Black American, Dr. Kicia Daniel, principal of Charles Drew Elementary Magnet School, became the first Black female commissioner for the city of Tamarac. She defeated her opponent, Carol Mendelson, even after a PAC group sent out very negative and spiteful campaign mailers about Daniel days leading up to voting. Pete has heard news that Daniel and her family had to be placed under police protection because of threats to their safety. Reports are swirling in the sand that on her first official day on the city of Tamarac dais, Daniel cast what appears to be an unpopular vote to terminate an employee. She and her family received threats and had to be placed under security watch. What Ol’ Pete finds particularly interesting is there are very few tracks in the sand for this story, yet if it happened anywhere outside of Broward county or to a politician of a lighter hue, it would most likely have made national news.
There is a lot happening this first official week of school reopening after the Christmas break. Superintendent Vickie Cartwright met with communities in the Northern Corridor… Pompano and Deerfield Beach. The Detective understands that this meeting started off dusty, dirty, muddy, foul, and just wrong. Pompano Strong members told The Street Detective that there was no agenda to guide the meeting, and they believed this was purposefully done so there would be a lack of focus. Community activists also believed the meeting should have been held in the community and not a district building. The Detective is told that Cartwright previously ghosted Terry Scott and the Deerfield Beach community six months ago when a meeting was scheduled at a community church. The Super rerouted the meeting to Deerfield Beach High School. Scott and other activists went to the original meeting location and conducted their meeting as planned without Cartwright. The meeting on Tuesday was originally scheduled for the Pompano Administrative Center but was moved to the Pompano Beach High School auditorium. At large board members, Debra Hixon and Allan Zeeman were scheduled to be a part of the fiasco, I mean meeting; however, Zeeman though backed out, leaving the three lagging ladies – Cartwright, Hixon and Rupert to drag the sands alone. From what Tracitt has deciphered from the sand tracks is the Northern Corridor community feels that this meeting was not authentically driven and was nothing more than a box checking exercise. Back in October, the Super was told to meet with the community as part of her 90-day plan which expires in about two weeks. The community has characterized Super Cartwright and Board members Nora Rupert, Debra Hixon and Alan Zeeman as “disrespectful and untrustworthy”.
Peter Traceit glided through the sands over to the Fort Lauderdale NAACP meeting with its President, Marcia Ellison, State Senator Rosalind “Oz” Osgood and newly elected District 5 School Board member, Dr. Jeff “Oz Jr.” Holness. Oz still has her nose buried deep in school board business, particularly, District 5. While Oz responded to some questions in the chat, Ol’ Peter noticed she conveniently ignored questions asking for data to support the accomplishments she bragged about as she went down memory lane her almost 10 years on the board.
Even after spending almost a decade as a school board member, Oz could not spit out the phrase that describes educators’ responsibility to students in the absence of their parents. An attendee, Chris Nelson, helped out by excavating the phrase “in loco parentis” from the sand and writing it in the Zoom chat for Oz.
Holness, AKA Oz. Jr., explained why he brought the item forward to reinstate the superintendent even though he claims that he did not know or had never spoken to Cartwright prior to being elected. Ol’ Pete kicked up sand while listening to this. Oz Jr. said he questioned the process. She explained that the “spirit of Sunshine” was broken, due process was questionable, and the integrity of the district was in jeopardy. Detective Traceit scratched and thought, “if this was his reason, he should be ready to bring back several items starting with how Cartwright was ever allowed to apply for the permanent position in the first place as well as her organization chart that violated demoted employees’ rights in the ‘spirit of due process’” and process.
President Ellison ex-pressed concern about the dead horse PROMISE program and what was happening now that David Watkins is no longer the Director of Equity and Diversity. It appears that Ellison and Oz have a healthy respect for Watkins. Yet, Ol’ Peter finds it interesting that they didn’t rally behind him with a statement of support when Cartwright buried him in the desert with barely any “due process”. Where was the support for Watkins in the “spirit of due process”? Maybe Oz Jr. can bring that back to be discussed and rescinded.
Broward schools is never short on drama. The Street Detective is learning that Cartwright and the district are in quicksand over a contract it approved with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The newly approved extension of the contract bumps heads with Governor Ron DeSantis’s Individual Freedom Act law which banned what he describes as “one-sided activism” and teaching critical race theory in schools. What Traceit finds interesting and just downright hypocritical is that curriculum in the contract calls for preschool students to take a stand and urges all students to become social justice advocates. While Peter has no issues with this progressive movement among students, it is hypocritical because the adults in Broward schools do not model the behaviors of taking a stand against injustice by being social justice advocates. The Detective is asking for a dirty friend…. Shouldn’t the adults, starting with Board members and the Superintendent, be responsible for modeling these expectations before asking it of children?
It’s a new year but the dirt is old. The Street Detective will continue dragging the sands for any and all fresh dirt worthy of news.
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