Who’s Going to Check the Checker?

A Message From The Publisher

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

I really would like to begin this year off with a great start concerning our BCPS School Board, and I will by stating, “Happy New Year”! No promises, no resolutions  – just honesty and let’s do what is best for the children, all of them. But, to do that we would all have to admit  our deficiencies, and as humans we all have them.

BCPS School Board members are looking to join the county wide Inspector General (IG). For the past 12 years, the countywide IG office has been responsible for investigating ethically questionable activity brought to its attention with employees and practices within county government and 31 municipalities. Voters approved a County IG position and office back in 2010 to address what some believed to be serious corruption in city and county government.

For Broward Schools to become a part, the Broward County Commission would have to take up the proposition at a meeting and agree to support it. It would then go onto the ballot for voters to decide.  This could take as much as two years, which has prompted some Board members to consider creating a position for an IG who would work for Broward Schools. A second option was floated to contract with an outside firm to provide the services. These two options could be implemented more rapidly as they are not required to be on a ballot for voters to consider. More rapidly doesn’t mean immediately. If we have learned nothing over the last year, we should have learned that Broward schools’ processes are about as slow as molasses in an icehouse, and Board members volley back and forth on decisions like we have seen with hiring and firing the superintendent. Their actions are truly inline with the statement recorded into law in the Brown vs The Board of Education Topeka, Kansa-  “With All Deliberate Speed”.

Interestingly, this is not the first time the BCPS School Board has entertained having an IG. In fact, the 2010 Grand Jury strongly recommended it, yet the Board members felt it was no longer needed because most of the Board members who were on the Board during that Grand Jury investigation and ultimate finding were gone.

But herein is where the problem lies. The corruption in Broward does not lie with a single person or two or three Board members. It is manifested and is woven into the fabric of the institution. There is systemwide corruption intertwined in all layers of the organization. It shows that it is embedded into the culture. It is the way business is done. It is “normal”, and it starts at the top. When you read Grand Jury reports, there is hardly any mention of teachers and lower-level management like assistant principals and principals. Grand Jury reports expose the abuse and misuse of power that is held and wielded by school board members, superintendents, and executive level staff.  These are the people in the organization who can benefit most financially and from forged relationships. It like you get paid when you play and demoted and fired when you don’t.

For example, Chuck Puleri of Chuck Puleri and Associates allowed former Board member Donna Korn and her children to “vacation” at his luxurious home.  Korn claims she paid a minimal fee to vacation there, in accordance with the rules around gifting. But there is so much wrong here, even if it teeters on whether it is a violation of the law.  Should a school board member and her children vacation at someone’s luxurious home with jet skis and the like and then vote on their contract weeks or months later? It wreaks of impropriety.

Likewise, Superintendent Vickie Cartwright sauntered into town and weaseled her way into a Superintendent job that she knew good and darn well she was not eligible for. She begins a personal friendship with Jillian Haring who works for PCG. These women are seen shopping like besties at the Sawgrass Mills Mall.  Cartwright also took up with the Broward Teachers Union (BTU) president, Anna Fusco.  She and Fusco were seen out maskless in the height of the pandemic partying with rapper, Kodak Black.  Odds are, but for the positions these people hold, these relationships would never have come together.  Cartwright forged this unusual relationship with Haring, and low and behold PCG benefits to the tune of millions of dollars and their monopoly on the district gets stronger.  Fusco, who has been heard flaunting that she “owns the Superintendent”, benefits, as well.  It is rumored that some of the recommended discipline received by teachers from the district’s Professional Standards Committee (PSC) has been lowered by the Superintendent due to pressure from Fusco. The question is why would Fusco even has this level of contact with the Superintendent when there are so many layers underneath Cartwright with staff to engage with Fusco and troubleshoot problems?

For those who look at Fusco and Cartwright’s relationship and try to make sense of it, you can abandon the efforts. Cartwright’s decision to cozy up with Fusco is based purely on elementary math that doesn’t add up, but at some time or another, it made sense to Cartwright. Cartwright simply figured there were more teachers in the district than any other group; therefore, she would have more support if she ‘hooked up’ with the teachers’ union.

This thinking is not on par with leaders of integrity and lends itself to why Cartwright does not pass the Litmus Test to have ever been appointed as Superintendent and should not remain. Some Board members, I might add, subscribe to this same elementary mathematical knowledge. Being Superintendent of the sixth largest district in the nation requires a leader who can think strategically and who is charismatic. A Superintendent (and Board members) for a district as large and complicated as Broward Schools must have the ability to interface with dozens upon dozens of stakeholder groups… political figures, advisory boards, business partners, community advocates, student advocates, parents, and students on a level beyond reproach. A Superintendent moves in and out of these groups and ensures that the interest of the district is leveraged for its schools and students without compromising the integrity of the district and their personal self.

It isn’t too much to ask of a leader.  It is the foundation of college courses taught on leadership theory for all aspiring leaders.Whether in education or business, it’s an enate principle of serving and not self-serving.

But despite leadership rooted in years of theory, the practice in Broward schools is quite the opposite.  There is a culture of corruption that has taken on a life of its own.

But, back to the Inspector General.  I have very low hopes that BCPS hiring its own Inspector General or even hiring an outside firm will make a difference. It will simply be more of the same. Who’s going to check the checker?

We see clearly from Marilyn Batista, BCPS Interim General Counsel and Joris Jabouin, the BCPS Chief Auditor, that they operate as a part of the system of corruption. Batista presented as being in the hip pocket of the Superintendent when she vacillated on whether her firing violated Sunshine Law.  It could be argued that her expressed doubt from the dais (which was completely wrong) is what gave legs to the eventual overturning of the Superintendent’s firing on December 15. Based on Batista’s back and forth words on whether the firing violated Sunshine, we began hearing things like, “the spirit of Sunshine” even though there was no violation. What exactly does the “spirit of Sunshine” mean?  Either it violates or it doesn’t.  The “spirit of Sunshine” simply allowed the Board to overturn the Super’s termination and feel justified.

Jabouin, like Batista, who reports directly to the Board, is also intertwined in the corruption of BCPS. He ran a lukewarm investigation into PCG and the cap and gown debacle with Chuck Puleri and Associates. When peeling back the layers to how the investigation was run, it is clear to a freshman college student that the process was a lackluster and was orchestrated to give a particular result. Had it not been for the DeSantis Five appointed to the Board, it would have passed the sniff test with no problem. The problem, however, was that the DeSantis Five, particularly Former Board Chair, Torey Alston, acted with integrity and asked the right questions to reveal just how third rate the investigations were.

This brings me to the actual audit company that the Board hired to conduct the audit. While the audit firm does not work for Broward schools, it was paid by Broward schools. Again, either this firm has incompetent and inept audit staff or they, too, were in collusion with the district, working hard to give them results that cleared the superintendent and Board members. They were hired to investigate relationships between and among district staff and vendors and whether these relationships impacted business decisions in an unethical way. The conclusions were very questionable as the lack of evidence didn’t support these deductions. Jabouin and the outside auditor firm failed to secure texts and emails from key district staff, the Superintendent and Board members. Without the text messages and emails of these key players, the best outcome that the outside auditor could give was “inconclusive”. The firm, however, found “no evidence” or inappropriate relationships. How could there be no evidence when the evidence itself is incomplete.

To put it mildly, at this point BCPS should not hire its own Inspector General because they would select someone who would fit perfectly into the corruptive nature of Broward schools in the same way they selected Cartwright.  She was handpicked because they knew that she would be down like two flat tires with the corruption. Who’s going to check the checker?

Also, hiring an outside firm to serve as Inspector General is just as futile. Again, this firm most likely won’t work for BCPS, when paid by BCPS, the powers that be expect a certain outcome and when your bread and butter come from BCPS, it is a tight spot to be in. The corruption is understood by all, even those who do not work for but contract with the school district.

What is needed is exactly what is being proposed. BCPS needs an outside Inspector General with no ties whatsoever to them.

None!  Nada! As far away from them as the East is from the West.

The problem is the time it will take to make it happen.  The prolonged time to make it happen is just what many on this dysfunctional Board want and need.  They now have the ability to espouse that they want oversight, but with that oversight being a ways down the road, they can continue with their bad behaviors.  And when the public takes its eye off the ball, they will go back to status quo. Before you know it, there is no oversight, and no one is none the wiser.  It’s part of the corruption.

Let it be known, however, the question is not “if” there will be another Grand Jury Inquiry; the question is when?  What continually plays over and over in my mind are the words of former Board Chair, Torey Alston. Alston said, “When another Grand Jury is convened, I am confident my name won’t be mentioned anywhere.”

Can the others say the same with confidence?

You heard it from the Westside Gazette first. WHEN the results of the next Grand Jury is made public, Board members won’t just take the dead man walking trek from the 13th floor to their cars. They will be escorted to police vehicles.  Trust me.  There will be indictments. There will be arrests.  It’s time for the corruption to end. This is about our children.

About Carma Henry 24481 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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