Trails in the Sand by Peter Traceit, the Street Detective
The Kathleen C. Wright Building is where Ol’ Pete spent Tuesday morning. The nine Board members narrowed their six candidates down to three.
The Street Detective watched as dozens of employees and the community lined up at the microphone to support Dr. Valerie Wanza to make the short list of three.
Before the vote, there was a lot of dirt thrown on the superintendent search firm’s name about the process. The firm’s narrowing process was to have each Board member to rank the seven candidates from their least favorite (7) to their most favorite (1) or vice versa. Ol Pete was confused and thus glad they abandoned this ranking system. The members of the Board settled on selecting up to three candidates each who they believed should move forward. Some Board members selected three and others only selected two. When the dirt settled, it was not who made the list that surprised Peter Traceit; it was who did not make the list.
Despite God and country showing up to speak in support of Wanza, she did not make the short list of three. She was number four.
Daniel Foganholi of District 1, Jeff Holness of District 5, Debra Hixon of District 9 and Torey Alston of District 2 each gave Wanza their support. It was not enough, however, and she fell short to move forward in Broward.
Ol Pete would be remiss if the dirt on Brenda Fam wasn’t scratched just a lil bit. While each board member voted his or her conscious, Brenda Fam‘s comments did not, at all, seem rational. Fam spent time criticizing the search firm because she had to dig in the dirt to find information about candidates. In particular, she alluded to subpoenas for the candidate from inside the district. Fam should be careful about talking about other people’s dirty laundry. She should be sensitive because she is not out of the woods from alleged inappropriate behavior herself-of which Ol Pete finds it hard to believe but that doesn’t excuse her from pointing one finger with three pointing back in her direction. The same courtesy of innocent until proven otherwise that she wants for herself should be bestowed onto others.
The Detective is glad this part is over for Wanza and is looking forward to her moving on to more defined trails in the sands. Despite it all, Wanza is a clear winner. The volleyball is in her court, and she has an array of tactics in her arsenal. How she plays this beautiful serve has Ol Pete sputtering with excitement.
Will she lob it in the air or spike it right into their faces?
Has she considered how to bounce the ball off their heads?
Has she practiced the art of taunting and flinting, running to the net only to pass the ball to another player just to set herself up to make the game winning slam dunk?
Pete thinks these are exciting times for Wanza. She has earned this next chapter that she will chart in the sand. Literally dozens of employees spoke to her readiness as a competent, charismatic, and caring leader today. Ol Pete has a sneaky feeling that wherever she lands, there will be a steady trail of footprints in the sands following her to her new destination.
Ol Pete, however, is committed to staying the course and dragging the sands of Broward no matter how arduous it might be.
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