More bad reporting on education at Miami Herald -Tell you about meetings the morning of them rather than in advance so you can attend; Supt. Runcie

Above and below, July 13, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier, looking south at the Broward County Schools HQ, 600 S.E. Third Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

More bad reporting on education at Miami Herald -We'll tell you about meetings the morning of them rather than in advance so you can attend them ...

We'll tell you about govt. meetings the morning of them rather than in advance, like on Sunday, so you know in advance and can maybe plan to attend.

The same reason we run our "Week Ahead" calendar on Monday instead of Sunday like most normal newspapers would do.

And if Broward School Board members engage in questionable personal behavior, we'll tell you about it MONTHS after-the-fact.

That is, if we do at all.

Love,

The Herald

They did the same thing for the Broward Courthouse Task Force meetings, only quoting -parroting- judges and selected courthouse workers and never interviewing anyone in depth who was knowledgeable and AGAINST the construction of a new County Courthouse, despite the fact that a clear majority of the county's taxpayers were/are against it.

Not that you'd ever have known it from what the Herald wrote at the time.

They could never find the opposing P.O.V. because they never honestly looked.

Was Thursday's story in the Herald by Laura Figueroa,

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/06/2441742/broward-school-district-hosts.html, a preview of the Herald's sleepwalking plans for covering new Supt. Robert Runcie?

(*Friday night postscript: Actually, the Herald has changed the story that used this URL on Thursday afternoon, wherein Figueroa talked about the meeting being held that night, and then used the same exact URL on Friday on that meeting. I checked the Herald's archives and they completely deleted the original story I complained about in an email I sent to about 6-7 dozen people around South Florida. Surprise!)

If so, Runcie would be better off telling the Herald not to even bother sending anyone to meetings -not that they always were, just like the Broward County Ethics meetings they rarely attended- and that henceforth, he'll call their bluff, and make arrangements for his public comments to be videotaped and placed on the school's website or a new YouTube page within 24 hours for the public to see for themselves.

If only...

Oh, and in case you forgot, in the year 2011, the Herald STILL doesn't have an Education blog, either!

Predictably, NOT mentioned in Thursday's Herald story -why wasn't this meeting with Runcie being televised on taxpayer-owned BECON, which is on both satellite and cable systems in Broward County?

Is it the same reason that the three-headed Integrity meetings -none of whose meetings were ever held south of Downtown FTL- were also NOT aired on BECON?

Plain old-fashioned incompetency!

See my January 10, 2001 post on the topic of the complete under-utilization of BECON to communicate with shareholders, Monday night's public meeting of Notter's Three Amigos -Bring hand warmers! Where are BECON's TV cameras?

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/monday-nights-public-meeting-of-notters.html

Supt. Runcie needs to take the initiative ASAP and make an example out of some highly-paid people in the school system, who can't even conceive of the simple idea of putting that meeting on TV and having an email address that questions could be sent to from Broward parents and taxpayers, and give them their unconditional release.

The only forum being held in south Broward will be on October 20th at McArthur High School, 6501 Hollywood Blvd. from 7-9 p.m.

Here's the website: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/pctf/

As for Monday, on the Broward Schools website...

BCPS to Host Broward Legislative Delegation Public Hearing
Broward County Public Schools will host a Broward Legislative Delegation public hearing to receive testimony concerning issues related to education and cultural affairs on Monday, October 10, 2011 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Collins Elementary School, 1050 NW 2nd Street, Dania.

My previous posts on the James Notter-appointed Integrity Committee:

The Worst of Times, The Worst of Times: For Broward taxpayers ...

Nov 04, 2010

Oh yeah, and be sure to ask Integrity member Bob Butterworth what he thinks -on camera, too- about the very idea of the present School Board members voting on this before the new members are sworn-in. Yet another nail in Broward Schools ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

A 'Gentleman's F' for Effort for laggard School Board Integrity ...

Jul 15, 2010

Rather ominously for concerned Broward citizens and taxpayers who hoped for more diligence and speed on their part, panel member Bob Butterworth said "he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

BTU's ad in today's Miami Herald re Broward County Schools Supt ...

Feb 17, 2010

The three members of the independent commission – Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, attorney W. George Allen, and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth — are donating their time. But the school district agreed to pay for ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Latest on Broward School Board ethics, slow-moving Bob Butterworth ...

Feb 07, 2010

previously that the January 10th Butterworth & Company public meeting could've been and should've been televised on the Broward School Board's own cable channel, BECON-TV, using the very TV cameras that Broward taxpayers have ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Monday night's public meeting of Notter's Three Amigos -Bring hand ...

Jan 11, 2010

To serve on the commission, Superintendent Jim Notter chose former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth; Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, a former state legislator; and attorney W. George Allen, who filed the lawsuit that forced ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

The Ding-Dong Broward School Board is meeting in secret right now ...

Dec 01, 2009

Does PR guru Bob Butterworth know about this meeting in secret? And when, specifically, is he going to meet with Broward parents and taxpayers in public and answer their questions? Just wondering. Or is that too much to ask? ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Hollywood and Hallandale Beach parents aren't feeling love for ...

Nov 27, 2009

1st Sun-Sentinel column about FP&L and Notter both turning to Bob Butterworth to lend some assistance, In Sticky Situations, Just Add Mr. Butterworth http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-butterworth-mayocol-b103009,0,2880202.column ...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

A 'Gentleman's F' for Effort for laggard School Board Integrity Czars Butterworth, Seiler & Allen

Above and below, July 13, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking south at the Broward County Schools HQ, 600 S.E. Third Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.


So, did you see or hear anything in the newspapers or on TV about the long list of qualified applicants hoping to succeed Ed Marko for the General Counsel's position with Broward County Schools?
The man who has held that position since... well...

BEFORE Don Shula was ever the Dolphins head coach; BEFORE microwave ovens were common in every home; BEFORE the Florida Turnpike's Homestead extension was completed and trips to The Everglades on non-air conditioned school buses from North Miami Beach took HOURS while you slowly melted into the plastic seat you sat in; and back when attending the New Year's Eve Orange Bowl Parade was nationally televised on NBC-TV from downtown Miami, and was one of the real entertainment highlights of the year for many South Florida kids?

See BrowardBeat's June 24th post Bar Brawl Expected When Lawyers Fight For Ed Marko’s School Board Job by Buddy Nevins,
http://www.browardbeat.com/school-board-will-discuss-ed-markos-fate-big-money-legal-job-could-open/

I mean the depth and breadth of their professional educational experience, the cultural diversity of the backgrounds of the applicants, blah, blah...

Actually, since I chose not to attend the screening meeting Wednesday and no South Florida print or TV reporter apparently had the time or inclination to attend, either, judging by the complete lack of stories I'm finding anywhere on it at 2 a.m., you and I and the rest of the taxpayers in Broward County have no earthly idea who these applicants are.

Speaking of a story that South Florida reporters have largely slept on, did you happen to notice this story the other day in the Sun-Sentinel -below- about the latest news with the so-called three-legged ethics panel appointed by Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter last October, the group that Broward NewTimes columnist and Daily Pulp blogger Bob Norman accurately called the School Board Integrity Czars?

Guess what? They missed their soft deadline of May for delivering a public report full of recommendations, school ended in June and we're now a week past the Fourth of July.
And school starts again in six weeks.

The working deadline now is.. well, Butterworth & Co. don't want to be pressed for deadlines or mileposts, which is interesting since that's sort of the shifting attitude that's allowed things down here with the school system to snowball to the point where his panel was necessary in the first place: insufficient personal or professional accountability by elected officials or administrators to the public, and a perfect willingness to kick the can further down the road.

Seriously, how many times did I (accurately) use that 'can' analogy to describe the very
unprofessional working ethic I saw from Hallandale Beach City Hall and its employees the first two years of this blog? (Not that this has changed.)

Rather ominously for concerned Broward citizens and taxpayers who hoped for more diligence and speed on their part, panel member Bob Butterworth said "he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the integrity commission's recommendations seriously."
WTF?
For such an accomplished man, Butterworth often seems awfully naive to the grim realities of what his local universe is composed of besides hydrogen, water and sunshine.

He seems not to have learned anything about the fact that in Broward County, and especially in the School Kingdom, where unicorns and rainbows and promises to do better abound, it's much more than just a few people in power or authority who will do whatever they think they can get away, it's probably closer to a good third, and that is pretty reflective of all city, county and state government employees in Broward and Miami-Dade.
The reality all around us seems to accurately reflect that central fact.

One of the reasons that Broward is so corrupt is, simply put, because so many honest, talented and accomplished people with something positive to contribute to society, want NOTHING to do with government.
NOTHING.
This, of course, only increases the odds of success for the crooked folks to make their deals. Chicken or egg?

If you happen to be reading this post from some other part of the U.S. or from overseas, where I'm happy to say I've made a few fans, please understand what I'm saying here.

People here in South Florida don't just say that this area is more corrupt than the rest of the United States because it's a throwaway line and a form of self-deprecation, they say it because it is all-too-true.

Perhaps not to Nigerian email corrupt exactly, but if Transparency International paid a visit and audited local governments and state agencies in Broward and Miami-Dade counties using the standards they use to judge these things for their reports, the truth is that they would fit right in with the low-achieving countries that make Scandinavia look so good in comparison.
http://www.transparency.org/
The World's Most Corrupt Countries
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/17/haiti-somalia-afghanistan-business-most-corrupt-countries.html

Here in South Florida, the bribery and back-scratching as it were, is always right near the surface, and is practically built into the institutional framework of the organizations, like sitting Broward County Commissioners getting to give input on purchasing decisions, or weighing-in on very important land use/zoning decisions on multi-million dollar development projects while serving on other government panels simply because they are Broward County commissioners, as was discussed repeatedly at the Broward Ethics Commission meetings I attended over the past year that South Florida TV stations completely ignored.

Not that those early morning meetings helped woo TV cameras down to downtown Fort Lauderdale, since South Florida TV reporters are not generally early risers.
-------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Panel prepares ethics report for Broward schools
Two months behind schedule, volunteer commission readies list of recommendations
By Rafael A. Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
6:26 p.m. EDT,
July 11, 2010

The volunteer panel created to develop ethical reforms for the Broward school district is finally planning to finish its work. But the three-member commission has yet to issue a timetable.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, attorney W. George Allen, and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth were tapped last October to make up the Commission on Education Excellence through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency. While no deadline was ever set, they had hoped to put a set of recommendations before the School Board sometime in May.

The school year ended June 9 without a report.

Now, Butterworth said the panel will set a meeting this week to develop a timetable for issuing its report.

Butterworth offered no explanation — or excuse — for the delay other than the busy schedules maintained by the three commission members, all of whom are volunteers with a full-time workload.

"We've had good input from the community, from meetings that we've held and from people who've weighed in online," said Butterworth. "In retrospect, May was an ambitious date, one we were not able to meet."

Without going into specifics, Butterworth praised the School Board for addressing some ethical issues while contending with an academic year that began with School Board members Beverly Gallagher and Stephanie Kraft being under scrutiny for ethical conflicts.

Gallagher pleaded guilty in March to a federal bribery charge, admitting to receiving $12,500 in illegal payments. She is serving a 37-month prison term.

Kraft revealed in October that her husband's business had ties to School Board lobbyist Neil Sterling. Her failure to disclose the relationship sooner was a lapse that carried no penalty until the board later tightened its rules. Now both lobbyists and board members will face sanctions for failing to reveal such ties.

Kraft announced earlier this year she is not running for re-election in August. The Sun Sentinel reported last month she is under investigation by prosecutors in a corruption investigation that recently snagged Tamarac City Commissioner Patricia "Patte" Atkins-Grad, who was removed from office.

Butterworth said he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the integrity commission's recommendations seriously.

"When you're a public official, you have to operate in a way that considers not only the reality of wrongdoing, but the perception of it as well," Butterworth said. "The School Board can do what it wants with our recommendations. It's not a commission mandated by law or by the voters. But they want to do right, and I think in the end they will."

--------

Elsewhere, take a look at this press release page from the Broward School Board's official website. http://www.browardschools.com/press/

Tell me where you see anything about the Screening Committee that met on Wednesday afternoon, or anything announcing the time and date of the two scheduled meetings for parents about Hollywood's Beachside Montessori Village K-8 school not being open for students on time on August 23rd, the day before the primary election?

Or on the School Board's listed web page for the school, http://www.browardschools.com/schoolsplash1/schoolsplash.asp?infoid=2041?

Let me save you the trouble of looking -the pertinent information is NOT there.

Hmm-m-m... not there.
Sort of like how the three public meetings of the preposterously named Excellence through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency panel weren't televised or taped for later broadcast on the Broward School Board's own cable TV channel, BECON even though Broward taxpayers have already paid for all the equipment. http://www.becon.tv/

And did you ever happen to take a look at the feeble Integrity website for Butterworth & Company, http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/ which features two news articles for two of their five bits of information "In the News," just as was true many months ago?

How terribly, terribly underwhelming and uninspiring, and when you throw into the mix their lack of use of the TV station and their NEVER having a single meeting in southern Broward County, how can any honest person say that it's not just business as usual, par for the course?

In case you're somewhat new to the blog, I often wrote about that typical lack of logic and common sense with this particular gang earlier in the year when it was happening, even while everyone else with a blog was ignoring the answer to greater communication right in front of them, so just use my blog's search box at the top left and type in Butterfield to find those earlier posts.
The correct information about the two meetings at South Broward High School on Thursday night and on July 21st is at http://www.beachsidemontessori.org/index.cfm, but tell me, if it isn't mentioned on the School's Board's main page and the first web page the website gives for the school -and it isn't- why would people necessarily think there's yet another website with that info for a school that hasn't even opened yet.
Can you riddle me that?

Once again, someone in authority has dropped the ball and not used logic or common sense, always South Florida's fatal flaw regardless of the issue.

Monday's Broward School meeting at Deerfield Beach Middle School on countywide security procedures -more incompetence!

Below, an email I sent tonight to South Florida
blogger extraordinaire Chaz Stevens of
Deerfield Beach, http://www.myactsofsedition.com/
Saturday April 10th, 2010 9:55 p.m.

Dear Chaz:

While at Panera Bread late this afternoon,
while doing some reading and writing,
I noticed the ad on page 5B of the Herald
-above- regarding an official Broward School
meeting at Deerfield Beach Middle School
Monday night at 7 p.m.

I made a note to myself that when I got home,
I'd go to the Herald's online advertising page,
make a copy and send it along to you for you
to post or mention to your readers, since your
city has sadly become the Ground Zero for
this contemptible behavior at schools.

But when I checked the Herald's advertising
website as I have in the past,
http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/Categories.aspx,
the ad did NOT appear for some reason,
so I've gone ahead and snapped a photo of it
with my own camera -with predictable
results.

Still, I think it's legible enough for you to
make out okay.

So, guess who doesn't have anything about
this meeting on their own website?

Correct.
Broward County Schools.
http://www.browardschools.com/

The same geniuses that have at their
disposal, a Cable TV station with TV cameras
that taxpayers have already paid for,
http://www.becon.tv/ but which,
somehow, over the course of the past
few months, could never be used to
televise LIVE or tape any of the
so-called Integrity meetings by
Butterworth & Company,
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/
have now decided to run a paid advertisement
in the newspaper while neglecting
to mention it on their own website.

Geniuses, that is, if by geniuses you
mean clueless, incompetent morons.

Notter & Company are some kind
of role models for the kids, huh?

Just more proof, as if needed, that all
the Broward School Board incumbents
running this Fall have to go buh-bye.

This is just more evidence that they're
part of the problem, not part of the
eventual solution.
Adios!

-----

So faithful readers, here's the current list
of announced Broward School Board
candidates, which I'll be discussing again
by Monday night:
http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=89

Did you notice whose name is conspicuous
by its absence?
I did.
Rhymes with brook.

I actually saw her VERY SWEET decked-out
'campaign' bus rolling north up U.S.-1 past
Gulfstream Park nine days ago, but I got my
camera out too late to actually snap a shot of it
and run it here.

Latest on Broward School Board ethics, slow-moving Bob Butterworth Integrity Crew; Adios, Gottlieb & Murray!

Some of you may recall that back on January 28th, I sent out an email and then posted as a blog posting most of the following:
If you really want to spend some time chasing your tail,try going to the website of the Broward School system group I've been referring to here in emails and in blog posts as the
Three Amigos, a.k.a. the Commission on Education Excellence Through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency,
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/


Using their own website, try to find the time, date and location of their next public meeting.
Go ahead.
Really, go ahead.
It's not there.


In fact, the only thing that has been added tothe website since it came online are links to news articles about the group.
And nothing since January 12th, the day after their first and only public meeting.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=2a16c099-dbad-4b75-8f0c-a64769278b58&src=front

To me, that sounds a lot more like a fan's celebrity website than an actual watchdog group's efforts to get the public engaged.
Time's a wastin'.

Well, today, February 7th, ten days later, guess what has changed?
Hardly anything!

They've now listed info about their next meeting on Feb. 22nd in Coconut Creek, having previously met on January 10th at Dillard.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=2a16c099-dbad-4b75-8f0c-a64769278b58&src=front

Really?
Six weeks in-between public meetings for a watchdog group that has a limited shelf-life to begin with?
And what about a public meeting in SE Broward?

Off the top of my head, I can think of at least five locales in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach that are more than capable of handling the number of taxpayers and parents who would attend such a meeting, with plenty of room for media.

In case you were wondering about my clever suggestion previously that the January 10th Butterworth & Company public meeting could've been and should've been televised
on the Broward School Board's own cable channel, BECON-TV, using the very TV cameras that Broward taxpayers have already paid for, I received a lot of email responses seconding
that motion.

Frankly, many people wondered why nobody else thought of it, including the highly-paid legal staff at the Broward School Board, much less, Butterworth himself, the former Attorney General of Florida.

Everyone who has contacted me so far on that issue also believes that all the future meetings of the so-called Integrity group be televised, recorded and replayed so that more people can see it for themselves.

(FYI: Turns out that BECON/Channel 63 is also available on DirecTV, unlike the County's cable channel, which as I found out this past week in investigating the Courthouse issue, is
unable -or unwilling?- to replay their own webcasts of Commission meetings on their own website, something the City of Hollywood has been doing for years. Hm-m-m...)

After I sent that email out ten days ago, I got very curious about what was more important than the School Board introducing taxpayers and parents to the three men that Supt. James Notter selected to clean things up.

For the record, here's what BECON-TV showed the night they could've taken a small step towards accountability and transparency by showing Butterworth & Company:
http://www.becon.tv/becon-tv-schedules

6:00 pm	Historic Hotels of America : Le P Avillon
6:30 pm	Broward School Beat : Episode 45
7:00 pm	Untold Stories : Barnstormers to Blue Angels
7:30 pm	Dateline Health Nsu : Public Health Dh#277

Early next week, I'm going to send an email to Supt. James Notter and the School Board Attorney directly asking them to put a fire under Butterworth & Company
and get them to actually put useful info on that Integrity website, and to fully explain why BECON-TV can't or shouldn't be televising future public Integrity meetings.

By the way, one good reason why you don't want to follow "Broward School Board" as a subject on Twitter is three and three-quarter pages of the same Tweet, hour-after-hour for about five days
http://twitter.com/search?q=%22Broward%20School%20Board%22

Not that http://twitter.com/browardschoolnw is of much use either.

The things you find out when you take a hard look at a very dysfunctional crew.


www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-pavarini-westglades-20100206,0,7655196.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
A costly lesson: Broward school district mistakenly pays out $290,000
Return money or be sued, builder told
By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel
February 7, 2010

In the midst of a crushing budget crisis, the Broward school district mistakenly paid more than $290,000 to a Fort Lauderdale firm for a school classroom addition that it quickly scrapped. Now the district finds itself in the awkward position of asking for the money back.

If Pavarini Construction Co. refuses, the district could be headed for a costly legal battle. According to Pavarini President Gary W. Glenewinkel, the company is "in the process of reviewing our records and all data related to this issue."

The error upset the district's new head of construction, Thomas E. Lindner, who took over in early January after the former administrator retired.

"You can't rubber-stamp invoices, even if they're for $5," Lindner said. Asked if the district mistakenly paid other construction companies, he said he doesn't know but is going to find out.

"This is just one that I discovered," he said.

District auditors are now reviewing how the error occurred. Lindner said he will consider their findings and determine how to ensure it doesn't happen again.

The district's construction department has been under intense scrutiny after the September arrest of suspended School Board member Beverly Gallagher. She was snared in an FBI sting for allegedly taking bribes to rig construction contracts.

On April 21, the School Board agreed to hire Pavarini to handle the construction of a $6.7 million, 24-room addition to Westglades Middle School in Parkland.

The company stood to make $581,365 in management fees for the project's initial "pre-design" and "design" phases.

But declining enrollment and years of aggressive building left the district with thousands of empty seats. State officials ordered the district to halt its building spree. In August, the School Board voted to abandon the Westglades project along with scores of others.

But by then, Pavarini had already submitted an invoice seeking payment for $387,596. The invoice is dated April 25, only four days after the contract was awarded.

A project manager for the school district reduced the amount due to $290,683 — half of the $581,365 — and approved payment May 11, records show.

"Four or five people sign invoices like this," Lindner said, but only two have access to the full project file: the project manager and a reviewer in the Capital Budget Department.

The invoice shows that Pavarini had hired a Coral Gables architectural firm, Wolfberg Alvarez & Partners, to design the addition.

Lindner said Pavarini was not entitled to any money because the district never issued a "Notice to Proceed" — a document authorizing companies to begin work. Lindner said he did not know if Pavarini or the architect did any work on the project at all, but if they did without the formal notice "that's on their nickel … not our nickel."

In a letter dated Jan. 25, Lindner asked Pavarini to refund the money. "If they decide not to, then we'll litigate for it," he said.

The district sues architects and contractors for mistakes their firms make on projects, but it can take years to recover the money, if ever.

School Board chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb said she was unaware of the billing problem with Pavarini. "That's a lot of money," she said. "Apparently something fell through the cracks, and it seems it's a pretty expensive issue."

The payout left others scratching their heads as well.

"Why didn't school district employees check to make sure the project was going to be built before they cut a check of that size?" asked Nick Sakhnovsky, chairman of the school facilities task force. "Doesn't anyone review quarter-of-a-million-dollar checks?"

Reader comments at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-pavarini-westglades-20100206,0,901512,comment-display-all.story


I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not it's a positive sign for oversight and accountability in the year 2010 that someone who, as Chair of the Broward School Board, like Jennifer
Gottlieb, is "unaware" of $290,000 mistakes, or even whether there are many more such ticking time-bombs out there, waiting to go off.

Personally, as you may surmise from my previous critical comments about them here, under no circumstances would I vote for the re-election of Jennifer Gottlieb or Ann Murray in November.

To me, they have consistently proven thru their own words and deeds that they are ineffective as representatives of the taxpayers and parents of this county, especially if you
live in SE Broward and don't like what you see from them.

In short, their good intentions have NOT translated into good results for children, parents or taxpayers.
They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

That simple fact should be more than enough to tell you that they ought to be replaced by people who are more curious, serious and capable of providing the necessary oversight and accountability for one of the largest school systems in the country.

An institution whose self-evident weaknesses and chronic inability to be truthful about its own actions actually repels many out-of-state businesses from relocating here.

In my opinion, Jennifer Gottlieb and Ann Murray have been given a free ride for quite some time.
Their free ride should end in November.

Monday night's public meeting of Notter's Three Amigos -Bring hand warmers! Where are BECON's TV cameras?

Last Wednesday we got word that...

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/1411248.html

Broward ethics panel to take public comments
By Patricia Mazzei
January 6, 2010

The three-person panel tasked with proposing improvements to how the Broward public school district does business will hold its first public hearing next week.

The Commission on Education Excellence Through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency will seek public input at 6 p.m. Monday at the Dillard Center for the Arts, 2501 NW 11th St., Fort Lauderdale.

The independent group was convened after the September arrest of suspended School Board member Beverly Gallagher in a federal corruption probe. Gallagher has pleaded not guilty to charges that she took $12,500 from undercover FBI agents for a promise to influence a decision on a school construction project.

To serve on the commission, Superintendent Jim Notter chose former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth; Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, a former state legislator; and attorney W. George Allen, who filed the lawsuit that forced the district to desegregate almost 40 years ago.

Reader comments at
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/1411248.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1


Then on Friday we heard...
My emphasis in red below

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-school-ethics-panel--20100109,0,1614300.story

Ethics panel set for first public hearing on school district
By Kathy Bushouse, Sun Sentinel
January 10, 2010

In the past few months, the Broward school district has been hammered by the arrest of a School Board member, allegations of contractor ripoffs and an investigation of a transportation department besieged by accusations of nepotism and sexual harassment.

On Monday, the panel created in October to scrutinize the district's policies and practices will have its first public hearing to set priorities on what it should investigate.

"We're going out to see what the people want," said attorney W. George Allen.

Allen, former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler are running the Commission on Education Excellence Through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency.

They have not set a firm timetable for the investigation.

The panel was created by Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter and School Board member Maureen Dinnen after the Sept. 23 arrest of Beverly Gallagher on corruption charges involving school construction, and shortly after board member Stephanie Kraft disclosed her husband's business ties to School Board lobbyist Neil Sterling.

The Florida Commission on Ethics also is investigating a complaint against Kraft that she misused her position to help Prestige Homes developer Bruce Chait.

Chait was arrested in December and charged by state prosecutors with bribery, unlawful compensation and perjury.

Earlier, in the summer, district auditors alleged two contractors ripped off more than $750,000 after Hurricane Wilma repairs.

The auditors said there were signs of collusion and coercion, as well as inflated and falsified documents so the companies could be paid.

After the panel was formed, the school district began an investigation into its transportation department.

The department's top two administrators — Ruben Parker, director of transportation services, and Lucille Greene, director of student transportation — were reassigned. Officials won't discuss specific reasons for the investigation.

But the Broward Teachers Union asked Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum for independent investigations last month. The union said the transportation department's problems included kickbacks in exchange for jobs, bus safety issues, nepotism and sexual harassment.

The governor forwarded the union's complaint to the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor.

That office is the "best entity to not only review the material but also to intitiate any necessary investigations," said Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey.

McCollum's office said the union's concerns are outside the attorney general's jurisdiction. McCollum's office reccomended the union contact the state's ethics commission, auditor general or the statewide grand jury, according to a letter dated Dec. 17.

Allen said the group spent the past two months getting organized. Now that the group is ready to work, he hopes to move quickly and make recommendations the district will adopt.

"I would hate to do work and then just turn it in as a written report, and nothing happens," Allen said.

Notter said the district would not automatically adopt all of the panel's recommendations but will consider them. He said all the district's operations and policies are open for review.

"They're going to come back with items that we need to revise, revamp, tweak, or frankly, maybe initiate brand-new," Notter said.

Monday's hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Dillard Center for the Arts, 2501 NW 11th St., Fort Lauderdale. For those unable to attend, the commission also is working on a website with an e-mail address and telephone number so people can send in tips.

The panel was promised complete independence from the district. Its leaders won't be paid, but the district will foot the bill for the staff.

Butterworth, Seiler and Allen were picked because of their long histories of community service.

Allen's selection raised some questions because he is registered as a lobbyist representing Bencor Inc., a company that offers alternatives to Social Security for district employees.

Allen said he didn't view it as a conflict because he hasn't lobbied for the company for years.

So far, the panel has met with some skepticism. One teacher sent e-mail to Seiler, saying she was concerned that Notter and Dinnen "handpicked a three-man (no woman) commission for a 90-day fact-finding analysis."

But such panels can be a step toward restoring public confidence in a beleaguered institution, said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

"I think that putting together a group like this is probably a good idea, especially where you've had many instances of alleged corruption or ethical violations," Jewett said. "… I'm not going to say that empanelling a group of citizens to look at this is going to solve all the problems, but it is a good step."

Kathy Bushouse can be reached at kbushouse@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4556.

How did Broward Schools Supt. James Notter's
Three Amigos NOT already have some means
of broadcasting or webcasting Monday night's
meeting figured-out by 5 p.m. last Friday?
Seriously.
Talk about gross incompetentcy!

(FYI: That's at the SAME time and date as
Broward County's previously-scheduled first
official Census 2010 meeting of social/religious/
community activists, which happens to be at
the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center.
See http://www.broward.org/eventhighlights.htm )

If these Broward School geniuses had any
common sense, they'd grab some of those
BECON TV cameras that Broward taxpayers
have ALREADY paid for and truck them
to Dillard to air Butterworth & Co. LIVE
on Channel 63. That would be so easy, and yet...

I'd call Ann Murray's School Board office
to find out why this isn't taking place if I
thought I'd get a straight answer out of her,
but...

Maybe if every official person with a Ed.D.
after their name is shivering in that room at
Dillard Monday night, someone downtown
will get off their butt and finally fix the
thermostat that controls school room temps,
so it's not as cold inside as it is outside.

Wow, that should've been the media
lede last week:
clueless Broward Schools HQ!

See Akilah Johnson's blog post on that
from Thursday at bottom.

If you're going to tomorrow night's meeting,
I recommend a visit to Target beforehand,
and get some Coleman-brand hand warmers
-they're excellent.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel Schools blog
Broward classrooms just as cold as outside, teachers say
Posted by Akilah Johnson

January 7, 2010 05:40 PM

Students and teachers in many Broward County public schools didn’t shed their scarves and gloves once this week’s lessons began. Instead, they shivered inside classrooms nearly as cold as the weather outside.

Read rest of this at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2010/01/broward_classrooms_just_as_col.html#comments

Hollywood and Hallandale Beach parents aren't feeling love for Notter and Broward Schools; Where's Bob Butterworth?

My comments follow the article.

------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/fl-school-consolidation-20091126,0,2973432.story

Broward school merger proposal upsets parents, officials in east

By Akilah Johnson and Jennifer Gollan, Sun Sentinel

November 26, 2009

Faced with the possibility that their underenrolled schools may be merged, some parents and officials in the eastern part of the county are warning the Broward School District to tread lightly.

There could be a minor rebellion among students upset over being moved, said Thomas Douglas, president of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Boyd Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes.

"There can be some separation anxiety and the implications are some of these young people will decide that it is not even worth attending school," he said. "It is basically a no-win situation."

The district projects as many as 33,000 empty desks in the 2013-14 school year, most in the eastern part of the county. As long as there are empty seats, the state won't allow the district to add classrooms or build new schools in the crowded west.

In response, the district is pushing a plan to measure classroom space by using eight geographic regions rather than individuals schools. The county and its cities must agree to the change. So far, Davie, Dania Beach and Cooper City voted to approve the measure. Lauderdale Lakes and Pompano Beach voted against it.

But that plan doesn't address underenrolled schools, and schools Superintendent James Notter is proposing that some elementary schools be consolidated, others could morph into kindergarten through eighth-grade schools or unused wings may be converted into office space for district administrators.

Notter explained that the district's leases on office space in Sunrise and Fort Lauderdale will soon expire and consolidating some underenrolled campuses helps with both money and boundary issues.

In the coming year, only Pioneer Middle School in Cooper City is scheduled to see significant boundary changes but district maps show scenarios in which thousands of students are moved out of overcrowded western schools into less-crowded schools starting in the 2011-2012 school year.

Hollywood Commissioner Richard Blattner said Notter's recommendation is reasonable. "If it means that older schools are closed and it reduces expenses that taxpayers have, it should be done," he said.

But Kristina Brazil, whose children attend Plantation Middle School, questions its merits.

"So…we move these kids out and put [administrators] in and it's a win, win?" she said. "The stance has been 'what's the most important thing for kids?' That doesn't sound like that's what they're doing."

Notter and School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb stressed the board has not approved anything yet.

"There are too many unanswered questions," Gottlieb said this week. "We need to know where the kids are going to go; the impact on communities."

Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper said the proposal to change how class space is measured benefits western communities and the district, which won't have to anger parents by changing boundaries. It does little to address the needs of communities with underenrolled schools, she said.

"If there is crowding in one place in the county and the mechanism is in place to fill those seats through boundary changes, I cannot sit idly by because of the lack of will," Cooper said. "Other cities, particularly those in eastern communities…should be concerned."

Longtime Pompano Beach community activist Ernestine Price vowed to rally against any proposal that might mean eastern schools will close. Price helped found the grassroots group that sued the district in 1995 for neglecting to provide older schools in eastern Broward with the same facilities, programs and quality teachers as newer schools out west.

The thought of consolidating underenrolled schools leaves her resentful and heartbroken, she said. But, it compels her to keep advocating against disparities.

"You have a Broward County School District, and when schools were being opened out west they bused these kids," she fumed. "And now the schools are overcrowded and they don't want to bus anyone to the east. I don't know how anybody can fix their mouth and say that."

Parents and officials in western cities fear that if the proposed change doesn't pass, thousands of students countywide will be moved in a domino effect.

Cooper City Mayor Debby Eisinger has been avid supporter of the proposal and said the intent was never to sacrifice some schools for the benefit of others. The resolution, she acknowledged, may need to be modified to include "some protection for underenrolled schools."

"It should not be an east/west fight," she said. "Let's work together to continue to provide a quality public school education for the children throughout Broward County."

Reader comments at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/fl-school-consolidation-20091126,0,3841345,comment-display-all.story

-----------
Seventy per cent of this article from yesterday is the
same as the Sun-Sentinel article from Saturday
that I sent many of you.

Since I returned to South Florida in mid-October of
2003, Mayor Cooper and the Hallandale Beach City
Commission have never held a single city-wide forum
on the sad state of education in this city, nor has she
has a single meeting of the City Commission that dealt
with it in a serious way.

And in the year since she was elected, we know that
Cooper has also never asked our MIA School Board
member Ann Murray to speak at any city function
to explain what, if anything, she's doing.
Why not?

And lest you forget, Hallandale High School also
serves kids from Hollywood, whose parents surely
must wonder what it takes for HB City Hall to get
off their butt and actually get more involved in changing
the mix of options for kids in the HB/Hollywood area.

To say nothing of the new residents of Hallandale
Beach with kids who are now moving into
developments on A1A like The Beach Club.
Who exactly is looking after their best interests?

People who make the sort of financial investment in
a place like they have will simply not accept half-assed
explanations from elected officials like Cooper and
Murray for why schools are so bad in the area,
and why they seem to have been mere spectators
while it all happened.

So when is Mayor Cooper and the HB City
Commission going to convene a city-wide meeting
on the state of education in this area, one with
Ann Murray present and accounted for,
so that people can have their legitimate concerns
aired and maybe even addressed?

A few months ago, showing what happens when
you have a person in charge who keeps their eyes
and ears open and responds in a constructive and
forthright fashion, Mayor Bober and the Hollywood
City Commission had an interesting meeting that
discussed the pluses and minuses of the city pursuing
an application for a city-run Charter school.

It was very informative and anyone who had an
opinion on the proposal or schools in Hollywood
or Broward in general, got their chance to put in
their two cents and sound-off.

Why is that SO difficult to replicate here in
Hallandale Beach?
Not the Charter School part, simply having the
public meeting?

To me, the one thing that became really apparent
as one parent after another spoke was the full extent
to which the Middle Schools are perceived as a
huge problem for the greater area.

Parents and citizens are VERY disturbed at what
they see and what they hear, and their perceptions
that mediocrity and sub-standard performance is
becoming the accepted norm, no matter what the
Broward School Board and Supt. Notter insists.

There was much discussion of the negative effect
of the Middle Schools in this area on attracting
families to the area, with many Realtors -and
'amateur' real estate experts- speaking to
the fact that they knew or had met people who
had decided to locate elsewhere.

It was also mentioned that as much as people
may prefer not to acknowledge it, many people
already living here were contemplating moving
elsewhere for the very same reasons.

Blame the reality or blame the perception,
but in the end, it's all the same thing if everyone
thinks it's bad.

Again, to repeat myself, since I returned to South
Florida six years ago from Arlington County, VA,
a place that is, if anything, perhaps, a little TOO
concerned with education, the city has never held
a single meeting on education.

One that, in my opinion, optimally, ought to be held
on a Saturday morning over at the HB Cultural Center
starting around 10:30 a.m., so that kids can be there,
too, with at least one parent or guardian.

You simply won't get the same kind of turnout if you
hold it at night, and we all know that, so how about
some common sense coming into play for a change?

And maybe, for once, the city actually putting up
legible signs advertising the meeting at least ten days
in advance in appropriate places throughout the city,
including near schools, rather than the typical way
that everything gets done here: half-assed.

Just wondering: when are we going to get our chance
to speak to the hydra-headed PR squad selected
by Supt. Notter to reassure Broward taxpayers
and parents that the whole Broward School Board
shouldn't just be blindfolded and tossed overboard?

Or as Michael Mayo wrote in his interesting
Nov. 1st Sun-Sentinel column about FP&L
and Notter both turning to Bob Butterworth
to lend some assistance,
In Sticky Situations, Just Add Mr. Butterworth
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-butterworth-mayocol-b103009,0,2880202.column
a " volunteer three-member panel to explore
the school district's recent troubles."

Since Mayo's column ran three-and-a-half weeks
ago, have you read or seen even one article or
segment on local TV about actual Broward citizens
getting a chance to speak to them, in either private
or public?

I haven't, and I've been actively looking for news
stories spelling out what they were actually doing.

There's been nothing reported for over three weeks
in either the Herald or Sun-Sentinel in the form of
an actual article, and my recollection was that they
were only going to be in operation for 90 days or so.
What gives?