A Message From The Publisher
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
The Broward County School Board is known to take the long way around most things. It took them three months and four firings to sever ties with Vickie Cartwright and they went round and round the mulberry bush trying to name a temporary replacement for Cartwright so that a search for a permanent superintendent could get underway.
Their indecision is one of the things that kept them from releasing Cartwright. The superintendent seat cannot be empty. This means that upon firing a superintendent, a replacement in the form of acting, interim or task assigned must be immediately named.
Finally, Dr. Valerie Wanza was named task assigned superintendent and from the looks of the timelines on social media, it has been met with overwhelming approval. But what exactly is task-assigned, and how is it different from acting or interim?
Based on the further action of the Board naming Dr. Earlean Smiley interim superintendent, it is probably safe to assume that the task-assigned position won’t last very long.
Smiley entered contract negotiations with Board Chair Lori Alhadeff, and General Counsel Marilyn Batista, on Monday. It is expected that if all goes well, the negotiated contract will be presented to the Board on Wednesday and Smiley will report to work soon thereafter. Wanza’s task-assigned superintendency will last two, maybe three weeks, at best. Be it two days, two weeks, two months or two years, Wanza’s resume can now reflect that she has served as superintendent of the sixth largest school district in the nation.
No one has clearly defined the differences among task-assigned, acting, and interim. In all three,the person is assuming the duties and responsibilities of the superintendent position; however, there are some differences.
In the case of task-assigned, Wanza has assumed the job responsibilities or assigned tasks of superintendent position; however, she continues to be responsible for the duties of her contracted position of Associate Superintendent. She may delegate some of those responsibilities to free herself up for the superintendent tasks. Task-assigned employees are sometimes paid additional salary to take on the tasks of the added position and other times they are not. This depends on the agreed upon negotiations. The task assignment is usually a shorter duration than acting or interim.
As stated in Board conversations, a person who is “acting” in a position is most likely an insider. The employee takes on all the duties of the position. Acting also allows for someone else in the organization to serve as acting in the role the employee has vacated. In this case, had Wanza been named acting and her time as acting was expected to last a month or longer, someone else would have most likely been named acting in her associate superintendent position. A person acting in a position is compensated for the additional work.
Interim superintendent is the title most used for long term replacements in the position. A search for a permanent superintendent could take as long as a year, especially with a novice Board as we see with this one. An interim can be an insider or outsider. Unlike acting, the interim is semi-permanent in that it lasts a longer time, and the interim superintendent is expected to not only complete the tasks of the superintendency but also engaged with internal and external stakeholders to represent the district at every level and in every function.
The Board members made it clear that they do not want the interim or acting superintendent to be able to apply for the permanent job citing that serving as interim or acting gives them an unfair advantage. Furthermore, Board member Sarah Leonardi admitted that Cartwright used the power of her position as interim to influence her selection as the permanent superintendent. One of the main jobs of interim is to help the Board in its search for a permanent superintendent. Once named interim, Cartwright was only interested in helping herself.
The search and selection of Cartwright as permanent superintendent was far from normal. It is not the process to replicate or refer to. There is only one person, Nora Rupert, who remains on the Board from 2011 when Robert Runcie was selected to serve as superintendent some twelve years ago. Even after serving a Baker’s dozen years on the Board, Rupert often admits from the dais that she “is learning”. It appears the Board wants to rush the process and have someone selected by June 2023. But to be done correctly, they should probably be looking at finalizing the selection of a permanent superintendent about a year from now, Spring of 2024.
Broward’s Board needs to settle down for a few months before a permanent superintendent search even gets underway. Graduation season is just around the corner and these ritualistic ceremonies are the happiest times for students and their families. Not rushing the selection process, but rather using the time between now and June graduations to really research and design the multi-stepped process is what is best for Broward. We all know that if something should go left, it will be with this novice Board and HR department. Novice is not an insult. It is just the reality that only Rupert has participated in a full selection process 12 years ago, about half is new to the Board, the General Counselor is new to the position and thanks to Cartwright, the HR Executive Director is also new. Though there isn’t a lot of experience with this collective Board around selecting a superintendent, they are certainly not short on jockeying for power and position. For these reasons, this process, like oxtails, needs to slow cook them… simmering in all those flavorings to have them succulent, tender, and falling off the bone.
Word to the wise and not so wise, much of the foreshadowing by the Westside Gazette have come to fruition. Let’s all pray Board members don’t allow stubbornness, selfishness, and greed to cloud their judgment. Doing what’s right for the little ones is always the best decision to be made despite partisan affiliation, personal wants, or disdain for the person to your left or right.
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