Showing posts with label Cara Fitzpatrick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cara Fitzpatrick. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Days before school starts, Broward County has a rudderless & clueless education system on auto-pilot, and the mice just jumped ship...


RedBroward's video: Amateur tape of Channel 10's newscast with investigative reporter Bob Norman. August 2011.


Days before school starts, Broward County has a rudderless & clueless education system on auto-pilot, and the mice just jumped ship. It's time to re-think the idea that they are in any way Social Media/Tech. savvy... or competent.

Broward County School Board
K.C. Wright Administration Building,
600 SE 3rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

-----

Broward Schools, "We are Broward County Public Schools, the 6th Largest District in the Nation"
@browardschools,

On June 20th they tweeted, "Follow BCPS This Summer on Twitter and Facebook"

Following this Tweet they generated 3 more Tweets, the last one of which was on June 30th.
There was NOTHING in July or August.
Nothing about the resignations of School Board members Dave Thomas or Jennifer Gottlieb.
Really.

So, the very same well-paid people at Broward Schools who weren't smart enough to figure out a way to use the resources they already had at BECON TV to televise the INTEGRITY meetings on their own station -the resources and equipment that Broward taxpayers had already paid for!- a subject of several fact-filled blog posts here last year, and a station that appears on both cable and satellite, have now shown themselves to be completely incapable of competently using the Social Media they claim to be hip to in order to share the fact that suddenly, they were a Board of 7, not 9.

Monday, when you went to the Broward School Board's website and looked at their Press Release homepage, http://www.browardschools.com/press/, you would see for yourself that they STILL have nothing about the Thomas and Gottlieb resignations posted, days later.
Even though it's less than a week 'till school starts.

When you go to the school system's website, check the left corner links under News/Links and click "Ethics Panels."
Guess what you are directed to?

Instead of the county's homepage for INTEGRITY or whatever they're calling their feeble Ethics efforts these days, which would be the logical guess, you are instead sent to a fake education website full of ads. http://www.browardschoolsintegrity.org/
Surprise!!!

And not to sound heavy-handed or anything but there's a Twitter page for a kids show on BECON called Teen News.
Their last Tweet was September 2nd, almost a year ago.

Apparently someone named Jeb Brunt is in charge, but is it really too much to ask if this group or their Twitter feed
is really necessary in the year 2011, if they're so poorly organized that almost an entire year has gone by...
I think that's your clue that they are un-necessary.
It's time to eliminate extraneous and superfluous!

But then the School Board members themselves are hardly role models for Social Media as now-former At-Large School Board Jennifer Gottlieb so ably demonstrates.
She has authored a grand total of two Tweets in 29 months and her last one was in April 2009, 28 months ago.


I'm curious why her 147 Followers still, apparently, follow her if she can't figure out something to say in 28 months.
isn't that kind of a sign that it's not really working out?

While she only has 6 Followers compared to Gottlieb's 147, At-Large School Board member member Robin Bartleman
http://twitter.com/#!/rbartleman at least writes more often...
Well, actually I don't know if she does or not since...

@rbartleman's Tweets are protected.



You'll excuse me for wondering just what the point is for an elected official like Bartleman to have a Twitter page, using her real name and her official School Board photo in a Social Media site, as well as a link to her School Board bio, but "protect" her Tweets on a site designed to share information.
It's like they're gold bars in her 'panic room' at home, and only her 6 pals, her BFFs, can see them /read them.
Seems sorta weird and about what you'd expect from a twenty-year old Rush Comm. Chair at a college sorority, but not what you expect in an elected public official.
(I dated a few of the former while at IU and was even friends with the President of PanHel, and they would've absolutely killed to have something like Twitter.
Instead, they had old-fashioned face-to-face meetings.)

If you want to have a Twitter page that you can share private information with your select circle of pals and don't want to send emails instead like most people, please DON'T use that official photo and don't link to the School Board website.

On a related matter, curious about why I never saw or heard anything in newspaper articles, blogs or on local TV newscasts about what the person who is supposed to be representing the pro-active voice of involved school parents thinks about what has been going on, I checked the website and Twitter page of the Broward County Council of PTAs, too.
BCCPTA is the parent 501(c)(3) non-profit for roughly 170-plus PTA groups throughout Broward County.

I found out that the president of that well-meaning group is named Linda Nestor and never having heard of her, I did a search to see what I could find out about her and what she and they have been saying of late about what's been going on this summer, with one scandal and embarrassing revelation after another dropping straight from the skies here, including the ones below.

Well, not surprisingly, being where we are, it's a deadly case of Pete and Repeat, if you're familiar with that conundrum.

BCCPTA
@BCCPTA Broward County, Florida,
Their last tweet was on June 25th, six long weeks ago.

Hmm-m... has anything happened here with the School system since then?
I'd say yes, but she says no.
That's not a good sign.

Seriously, does anyone over at the K.C. Wright Bldg. or the supposed parent organizations know how to stay pro-active and focused like a laser beam, or in general, know what the hell they're doing?

It doesn't really seem that way to me or to the many people I know and respect who pay MUCH closer attention to the Broward County Schools.
In fact, the preponderance of the evidence to date suggests that a lot more resignations and firings are desperately needed here, because Broward County taxpayers are definitely NOT getting a dollar's worth of value for a dollar given to the Broward County Schools.

Just saying...

-----
It's Official: School Board Member Jennifer Gottlieb Resigns
By Bob Norman
POSTED: Friday, August 12, 2011
UPDATED: 9:41 pm EDT August 12, 2011


-----
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The contract for the $5.2 million construction project expired 13 days after it was signed in 2008, but work has continued amid questions about whether the facility is even needed.
By Cara Fitzpatrick, SUN SENTINEL
August 15, 2011

For three years, the Broward School District has allowed work to proceed on a $5.2 million office building in Pembroke Pines, despite a deepening budget crisis that prompted at least one board member to question whether it was still needed.

Now the district has racked up $2 million in construction costs but has only an unfinished project, an expired contract and a potential legal and financial nightmare to show for it.

"We are stuck in a mess that should never have happened," said Nora Rupert, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade fellow board members in June to consider shelving the project.

In the two months since then, Royal Concrete Concepts, of West Palm Beach, performed about $514,000 in work on the project, or about a quarter of the total. The company has declined comment.

The project, which is near Stirling Road and SW 202 Avenue, has been planned for more than a decade, and the School Board approved a building contract for it in April 2008. District officials said the new offices would save about $608,000 a year by decreasing the time maintenance employees spent driving every day from other district offices to job sites.

But earlier this month, district auditors discovered the contract for the project expired just 13 days after it was approved. Despite that, about eight months later, district staff gave the company the green light to start working, issuing a "notice to proceed."

District officials said they aren't sure why the expired contract wasn't noticed before now but said they haven't yet paid most of the $2 million.

Without a valid contract, J. Paul Carland II, the district's general counsel, said Thursday the district could risk a lawsuit from Royal Concrete if it called off the project altogether. He said it was also difficult to keep building without a legal agreement to spell out the price, deadlines and responsibilities of the district and the company.

"We just have to scramble," Carland said.

Further complicating matters is how the project was financed, district officials say. The district used federal stimulus bonds, which can't be used for salaries or school maintenance projects. To switch to another project, the district likely would have to come up with another $2 million, said Omar Shim, the district's capital budget director.

Board member Ann Murray called the project a "total mess" that had been propelled by "gentlemen's agreements" rather than with valid contracts and other documents. District staff should have known there wasn't an up-to-date contract, she said.

"It's your job to sort this out," she told Interim Superintendent Donnie Carter at last Tuesday's meeting.

Carter, who declined an interview with the Sun Sentinel, put a temporary stop to work at the site last week. Tom Lindner, the district's construction chief, said the project has gone through at least four project managers.

District officials gave Royal Concrete the go-ahead in May to pour the foundation, level the property and start erecting pre-fabricated buildings for the maintenance offices, Lindner told board members Tuesday. He said the project proceeded slowly because the district first wanted to finish school construction.

District officials also wanted to be closer to finishing a neighboring project, a controversial $18 million bus depot with office space, a bus wash and fueling station. When that was first planned, district officials said the bus depot would cost about $4.5 million.

The district has used the site, at times, to store old buses. Lindner said the final building on the site is about 93 percent complete.

The price for the maintenance offices also has fluctuated. It was originally approved as a $4.8 million project. Lindner said he's not sure why the cost changed but said the district still plans to use both facilities.

Board member Patricia Good said at this point it's difficult to know what to do.

"Do you stop the project? Do you continue with the project? With what's been raised, I don't know," she said.
Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-school-maintenance-buildin20110814/10
-----

Jennifer Gottlieb resignation is proof that EVERYTHING surprises Ann Murray: the sunrise, her own shadow, gravity...


Looks like I may finally have some incentive to dig-up and post that video I shot of Jennifer Gottlieb and Ann Murray up in Hollywood Beach one night back in January, making one lame excuse after another, for the excesses at Beachside Montessori Village -and the school system- before many of the cliquish Montessori moms, who, you should know, think they are either the bee's knees or the cat's pajamas!

They are neither, just the sort of sycophants who swallowed their self-serving prattle and have been funding these two despite their dubious character and judgment..
The meeting that only Channel 7 News of the 4 English-speaking Miami TV News operations bothered to cover as mentioned here at the time, with then-7 News reporter Reed Cowan asking Ann Murray some tough questions.

-----

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/12/2356823/broward-school-board-member-jennifer.html

Second Broward School Board Member steps down
School Board member Jennifer Gottlieb becomes the second person to resign from the nine-member board and the resignations come at a time when school is about to start in the troubled district.
BY LAURA FIGUEROA
August 13, 2011

Jennifer Gottlieb makes two.

Just before the Aug. 22 start of the school year, Gottlieb, a veteran member of the Broward School Board, notified Chairman Ben Williams that she is stepping down.

Gottlieb’s departure comes a day after freshman school board member Dave Thomas announced that he was leaving the board to focus on his wife’s health issues.

While she did not give a specific reason for her resignation, a formal letter of resignation would be forthcoming, Williams said in a phone interview.

“I was surprised that she was resigning, but we didn’t go into detail, “ Williams said.

Calls to Gottlieb’s cell and home phone numbers were not returned Friday.

Though rumors of Gottlieb’s eventual resignation had been swirling around, especially after Thomas’s announcement, many political insiders, education activists and those who serve on the board with her, say Gottlieb’s abrupt departure came as a surprise, especially since she just won another term on the board in a tight August 2010 race.

“That really floored me,” said school board member Ann Murray, when learning of Gottlieb’s resignation. “She’s done a great job. I’ve supported and admired her, and if this is based on what’s in the best interest of her family then I support her.”

Gottlieb, whose district covers much of Hollywood, has come under sharp criticism in the past year. While never naming her directly, a state grand jury report released in February blasted her for pushing for the construction of the Beachside Montessori School Village in Hollywood.

The $25 million K-8 center had been championed by Gottlieb, who said it was a way to replicate the successes of a similar charter school in Fort Lauderdale.

But, the grand jury report dubbed the Hollywood project as the “beachside boondoggle” and blasted it as “a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the Board and District.”

“Beachside cost the taxpayers over $25 million, including over $6 million in land acquisition, displaced dozens of residents, razed almost all of a local community park, and built in an area and a time where there was an abundance of empty elementary and middle school seats,” notes the grand jury report.

Gottlieb, a mother of two, who is married to Broward Court Judge Ken Gottlieb, got her start in education as a teacher at Dania Elementary School in Dania Beach. She also worked for the Broward Teachers Union as a government relations manager.

The union threw their support by Gottlieb when she ran for the board in September 2006, and she was able to defeat incumbent Darla L. Carter, who had served on the board for 10 years.

BTU President Pat Santeramo, said he was surprised by Gottlieb’s resignation, but also noted over the years the union’s relationship with their one-time ally grew distant. He cited Gottlieb’s support of former Superintendent Jim Notter’s calls for impasse during contract negotiations as a major reason for the rift.

Notter has resigned his superintendent post and the board is currently searching for someone to lead the country’s sixth largest district.

“As a former employee, she contributed a lot to building up the government relations between the two sides,” Santeramo said. “It’s unfortunate that over the past couple of years she lost her connection to her background in the classrooms.”

The two vacancies leave room for Republican Gov. Rick Scott to make board appointments in line with his conservative policies. Though the seats are non-partisan, Democrats have largely had a stronghold over the board.

“I have no doubt the governor is going to identify professional individuals who can continue the functions of a board member,” Williams said.

The board has many issues to deal with while awaiting Scott’s appointments, including the search for a school’s chief and the appropriate response to the critical grand jury report. Scott’s appointments are likely to take several weeks.

The board also is dealing with the fallout from charges of corruption against former board member Beverly Gallagher and Stephanie Kraft.

Gallagher was arrested in 2009 and is serving a three-year sentence in federal prison. Kraft who left last year, is under a corruption investigation by the Broward State Attorney's office.

Board member Robin Bartleman, who, like Gottlieb, fills a countywide at-large-seat on the dais, said the board could not let the resignations distract from the business at hand.

“There’s still seven of us,” Bartleman said. “We have to continue working on the budget, implementing new legislation, and making sure the doors open on the first day of school.”

Herald Staff Writer Patricia Mazzei contributed to this report
-----

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Despite budget woes, Broward schools continued to pay huge overtime
By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel
7:39 p.m. EDT, August 6, 2011

Even as it grappled with a $171 million shortfall, the Broward School District continued to pay some school employees more than three times the usual rate for driving an activities bus, cleaning or working in an after-school program.

Although district auditors recommended ending the practice about two years ago, Broward paid some employees with second jobs overtime at the hourly rate of their primary positions. That meant some staffers earned up to $48 an hour as bus drivers— jobs that typically pay $11.58 to $21.73 an hour. Others earned up to $38 an hour as custodians, a job that starts at $11.23 an hour.

Related

Watchdog reports: Are schools misspending taxpayer money?



But making a change is "not just a simple measure," said Gracie Diaz, associate superintendent of human resources. Most school employees with second jobs are entitled by federal labor law to the same rate as their primary position if the work duties are similar.

Only about 6 percent, or about 417 employees, could be paid the lower rate, she said.

Still, that would have saved about $200,000 a year, or about five new teachers' salaries, according to district officials.

Another suggestion by district auditors to eliminate a pay supplement for bus drivers would have saved about $1.5 million a year. But it has been ignored because it would require re-negotiating union contracts.

The latest audit of overtime pay was released on Aug. 2, the same day the School Board approved a tentative $2.9 billion budget that calls for increased class sizes, a reduction in the arts and the loss of about 2,400 jobs, many of them teachers on annual contracts.

"It shouldn't be two years to implement things from an audit," said board member Nora Rupert, who along with Laurie Rich Levinson voted against the budget. Jennifer Gottlieb was absent.

In the first three months of this year alone, Broward paid about $1.3 million in overtime to 6,946 school employees working second jobs in the district, auditors found.

And, while total overtime — about $3.7 million — went down during that period, overtime paid to employees with second jobs actually increased 33 percent, or about $310,000, according to auditors.

District auditors recommended in 2009 that overtime costs could be cut by hiring outside workers for some jobs, switching employees with second jobs to a lower hourly overtime rate and cutting the supplement for bus drivers.

Diaz said the overtime rates will be cut, but former Superintendent Jim Notter wanted to wait until the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, to lessen the effect on employees. The district also had to change its policies and payroll systems, which took time, she said.

The district hired about 907 outside workers last year, she said, but because of training issues it's not always as effective as using an existing employee. Those workers also are the first to be let go so laid-off district employees can have their jobs, she said.

Other auditor suggestions haven't been used.

Patrick Reilly, the district's chief auditor, said bus drivers were among the district's highest overtime earners, despite having lower base salaries than many other employee groups.

Drivers who have routes longer than six and a half hours are entitled by contract to an extra 30 minutes a day in pay to clean the buses and do paperwork, he said. But those duties already are included in their job descriptions and cutting the extra pay could save about $1.5 million a year.

Senior drivers are entitled by contract to first choice of routes with overtime, inflating the costs.

The transportation department is more than $50 million in the red, according to the district, and officials say they're looking into some cost-saving measures there.

Board member Ann Murray, who used to work in transportation, told Reilly to stop "badgering" departments where problems have already been identified. "It's easier to blame then fix sometimes," she said Tuesday.

But Rich Levinson said Friday the district can't wait for years to make changes.

"At all cost we need to protect our schools," she said.

Reader comments at:

Soon I'll be sharing some informed and uninformed thoughts on whom Gov. Rick Scott should consider appointing as interim members to the Broward County School Board.

Monday, August 8, 2011

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: If defendant cages at trials are good enough for Mubarak, they're good enough for Dinnen, Gottlieb & Murray!


In Broward County, when the corrupt and unethical members of the Broward School Board gang finally get their overdue date with justice, the taxpayers will be screaming for blood in Fort Lauderdale on a street where the County Courthouse is but a block from the Broward County Schools HQ.
Now that's convenient!
Or, as they say on TV, great "optics."

I wonder if the three of them will go "Shabby Chic" in their furnishing in their defendant cages?
With their grand sense of entitlement, you know they'd try to charge the taxpayers for the furniture in their cage.
That's the despicable caliber of people we're talking about.

Unless they want to use some furniture from their second homes, but I suspect by then, that may already be held as prosecution's "evidence," if you know what I mean.



RedBroward video: At the August 2nd, 2011 Broward County School Board meeting, member Maureen Dinnen speaks and makes clear that she doesn't like public scrutiny by the local news media -and Channel 10's Bob Norman in particular- regarding the number of her relatives currently working for the Broward School system, or, as school-connected contractors. August 2, 2011. http://youtu.be/xt153Yf5Wmw

Me, I love the scrutiny!

The more intense, the better!

WPLG-TV/Channel 10 News
Bob Norman's Blog
A Response To Maureen Dinnen
By Bob Norman
POSTED: Friday, August 5, 2011
UPDATED: 10:17 am EDT August 6, 2011

-----
The predicate to the above:

UPDATED: Maureen Dinnen Breaks Silence On Local 10 Report
By Bob Norman
POSTED: Tuesday, August 2, 2011,
UPDATED: 5:05 pm EDT August 2, 2011, http://www.local10.com/bobnorman/28742464/detail.html

If defendant cages at court trials are good enough for Hosni Mubarak, they're good enough for Broward School Board's Crew of Dinnen, Gottlieb & Murray!

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Despite budget woes, Broward schools continued to pay huge overtime
By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel
7:39 p.m. EDT, August 6, 2011

Even as it grappled with a $171 million shortfall, the Broward School District continued to pay some school employees more than three times the usual rate for driving an activities bus, cleaning or working in an after-school program.

Although district auditors recommended ending the practice about two years ago, Broward paid some employees with second jobs overtime at the hourly rate of their primary positions. That meant some staffers earned up to $48 an hour as bus drivers— jobs that typically pay $11.58 to $21.73 an hour. Others earned up to $38 an hour as custodians, a job that starts at $11.23 an hour.

But making a change is "not just a simple measure," said Gracie Diaz, associate superintendent of human resources. Most school employees with second jobs are entitled by federal labor law to the same rate as their primary position if the work duties are similar.

Only about 6 percent, or about 417 employees, could be paid the lower rate, she said.

Still, that would have saved about $200,000 a year, or about five new teachers' salaries, according to district officials.

Another suggestion by district auditors to eliminate a pay supplement for bus drivers would have saved about $1.5 million a year. But it has been ignored because it would require re-negotiating union contracts.

The latest audit of overtime pay was released on Aug. 2, the same day the School Board approved a tentative $2.9 billion budget that calls for increased class sizes, a reduction in the arts and the loss of about 2,400 jobs, many of them teachers on annual contracts.

"It shouldn't be two years to implement things from an audit," said board member Nora Rupert, who along with Laurie Rich Levinson voted against the budget. Jennifer Gottlieb was absent.

In the first three months of this year alone, Broward paid about $1.3 million in overtime to 6,946 school employees working second jobs in the district, auditors found.

And, while total overtime — about $3.7 million — went down during that period, overtime paid to employees with second jobs actually increased 33 percent, or about $310,000, according to auditors.

District auditors recommended in 2009 that overtime costs could be cut by hiring outside workers for some jobs, switching employees with second jobs to a lower hourly overtime rate and cutting the supplement for bus drivers.

Diaz said the overtime rates will be cut, but former Superintendent Jim Notter wanted to wait until the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, to lessen the effect on employees. The district also had to change its policies and payroll systems, which took time, she said.

The district hired about 907 outside workers last year, she said, but because of training issues it's not always as effective as using an existing employee. Those workers also are the first to be let go so laid-off district employees can have their jobs, she said.

Other auditor suggestions haven't been used.

Patrick Reilly, the district's chief auditor, said bus drivers were among the district's highest overtime earners, despite having lower base salaries than many other employee groups.

Drivers who have routes longer than six and a half hours are entitled by contract to an extra 30 minutes a day in pay to clean the buses and do paperwork, he said. But those duties already are included in their job descriptions and cutting the extra pay could save about $1.5 million a year.

Senior drivers are entitled by contract to first choice of routes with overtime, inflating the costs.

The transportation department is more than $50 million in the red, according to the district, and officials say they're looking into some cost-saving measures there.

Board member Ann Murray, who used to work in transportation, told Reilly to stop "badgering" departments where problems have already been identified. "It's easier to blame then fix sometimes," she said Tuesday.

But Rich Levinson said Friday the district can't wait for years to make changes.

"At all cost we need to protect our schools," she said.
Two days earlier, in the Sun-Sentinel's Schools blog, Cara Fitzpatrick connected-the-dots in jaw-dropping fashion on how poorly served Broward taxpayers are by the elected School Board and its administrator minions.

I was tempted to post about this on Thursday after seeing it on my Blogger Dashboard Reading List just minutes after it went online, but I wanted to wait to see if there ended up being more to this story by the weekend.
Nope.

Still, it's as much of a public dissection of live people as you usually ever see in local South Florida journalism and it was as much-appreciated as it was long overdue!
Name names!!!

South Florida Schools blog
Leaving a message in the Broward School District
By Cara Fitzpatrick August 4, 2011 03:09 PM


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/world/middleeast/05egypt.html




Thursday, August 4, 2011

Dear Broward County Taxpayers: "Jennifer Gottlieb was absent." It's already a tired and familiar refrain, isn't it?

Type the phrase "Jennifer Gottlieb was absent" into a search query on Google and watch how many times you get a response, even for this year.
And when you consider how poorly education is covered by the South Florida press corps, those numbers really make you wonder.

(And yes, in case you were wondering, the Miami Herald still hasn't mentioned anything about Tuesday night's Broward School Board budget meeting, which the Sun-Sentinel's Cara Fitzpatrick writes about below.
You know how that is, it being north-of-the-border and all and the Herald not being so interested in what happens with 40% of its customers...)

To say nothing of Gottlieb blowing-off the hugely important public Education Forum in Hallandale Beach in June on Hallandale High School -which I attended- when her partner-in-crime on the Broward County School Board, Ann Murray, also of next-door Hollywood, was also a no-show, despite the fact that it took years to make that meeting a reality and they both all about that meeting long before.
But they were too busy to show.

But as you know from reading this blog, when Gottlieb was keen to try to engage in PR spin over her handiwork regarding the much-criticized Beachside Montessori Village school that she is so emotionally attached to, both Gottlieb and Murray had two hours to talk in Hollywood at a meeting that I also attended, which also attracted some well-informed activist friends from HB, Csaba and Catherine.

Because there are so many posts here on the antics and ethics of Jennifer Gottlieb here, go to
and when you eventually finish reading the last post on the page, click the link on the right that says "Older Posts" and you'll continue in a reverse chron order.
Unfortunately, due to the limitation of the Blogger template and the quantity of posts, they literally can't all appear on the same page.

And in case you forgot or never knew, when she ran for re-election last year while the sitting Chair of the School Board, Jennifer Leonard Gottlieb won with 50.02% of the votes, garnering only 73 more votes than the combined total of runner-up Susan Eleanor Madori's 35,884 and third-place finisher Nicholas "Nick'' Sakhnovsky's 25,040 votes.
Just saying...

By the way, since nobody else seems to be asking, what's new with that "Secret" account at South Plantation High School that turns out not to have been so secret that lots of people in charge didn't take advantage of it despite Broward Schools written rules?
Or any legal investigations into Ann Murray's behavior and antics?

Or the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights inquiry into the admission practices at Beachside Montessori Village in Hollywood and Virginia Shuman Young Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, and whether they discriminate against minority students?
Broward taxpayers and voters want to know!

As the blog post below by Brittany Wallman makes clear, I guess it's a good thing that Jennifer Gottlieb isn't a Broward student, otherwise her excessive absences would be a real cause for concern.
Maybe even a sign that she was becoming a juvenile delinquent.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
School Board approves tentative budget that would cut tax rate
By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel
9:34 PM EDT, August 2, 2011

The Broward School Board approved a $2.9 billion tentative budget Tuesday that would lower the tax rate slightly but would slash almost 2,400 jobs, most of them teachers.

The School Board voted 6-2 to approve the budget, with a total school tax rate of $7.42 per $1,000 of taxable property value, down from $7.63 this year. Board members Nora Rupert and Laurie Rich Levinson voted against the budget plan. Jennifer Gottlieb was absent.

Final approval of the budget is expected in September.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Moms & Dads blog
Broward school district rats out students who skip classes
By Brittany Wallman

Monday, August 1, 2011

On eve of Tuesday's budget meeting at 6 pm, Broward School Board is still hiding crucial facts from students, parents & taxpayers


According to Local10's Bob Norman, with school scheduled to start up again on August 22nd, with at least 10 Broward County schools having been hit within the past month by thieves seeking to remove copper wiring that protects those schools from lightning strikes, and even while the robberies make the schools vulnerable to lightning damage, the Broward County School Board is once again acting true to form.
In this case, trying to keep the name of schools that now lack this protection from students, parents and taxpayers alike.
On Monday, Norman and his cameraman were chased off school property by Broward School officials while speaking to a contractor sent to fix the problem at one school.

Copper Thieves Targeting School Lightning Protectors, Thieves Have Targeted 10 Broward County Schools
by Bob Norman
POSTED: Monday, August 1, 2011,
UPDATED: 7:51 pm EDT August 1, 2011,


-----

It's true: Though the beleaguered Broward School Board will be hosting an FY 2011-12 budget hearing on Tuesday night, only one South Florida media outlet has had a story about their budget problems in the past few days.
Just saying...




South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Schools to consider budget calling for far fewer teachers, slightly lower tax rate
By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel, 6:18 p.m. EDT, August 1, 2011

-----
See also:

Loophole Makes Nepotism Legal At Our School Boards
By Bob Norman
POSTED: Saturday, July 30, 2011,
UPDATED: 11:58 am EDT July 31, 2011

School Board Member's Relatives Get School Board Business
By Bob Norman
POSTED: Thursday, July 28, 2011
UPDATED: 9:22 am EDT July 31, 2011
Story and video at:

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Broward County Schools' dysfunction junction continues to rile taxpayers, parents & pols in S.E. Broward County who want honest answers

July 13, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the Broward County Public Schools HQ in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Other than tap-dancing around the truth, what exactly is it that Broward School South Area Supt Joel Herbst is doing, and why is it that the Broward School system and the School Board remain unable to tell the truth and communicate effectively with taxpayers, parents and voters?
It just never ends with them.

First, how goes that search for a new Superintendent of Schools?
Well, according to their not-so-useful website:
Deadline for applications is August 16. The slate of semi-finalists will be presented to the Board on August 29 and finalists will be interviewed the week of September 12. The School Board is expected to make a selection at the conclusion of the process.
Or not.
Which is to say that just as I predicted here months ago, dear readers, despite having ample time to make some solid selections, they will NOT have someone in place by the time the new school year begins on August 22nd.
Maybe not even the first month of the new school year.

This inability to appreciate how this rolling-tumbleweed of a deadline looks to students, parents and taxpayers, who all have to meet deadlines, says a lot about who's running things.
And it only reminds me all over again that they need to select someone from outside of the state who has never heard of any of the sorry characters inhabiting that building.

Speaking of people who want to be Supt, or rather, who for now are publicly saying they don't want to seek it, late Monday night, a not-so-secret fact known to more than a few people hereabouts, finally came to light in a Sun-Sentinel story by Cara Fitzpatrick about some clearly unethical shenanigans that took place under Herbt's tenure as principal at South Plantation High School.

Unethical on its face, unethical when you think about it, and unethical when you get to know the facts about how long it was tolerated by people who should have known better.
Yet Herbst would have us believe he didn't know it was wrong.

Frankly, that sort of sheer stupidity is more than enough to dis-credit him for good in my book.

I wonder if Herbst mentioned this moral indiscretion of his to the FBI last year when they interviewed him about the longstanding culture of corruption in the Broward School system?


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
South Plantation High kept $200,000 a year in undisclosed fund
By Cara Fitzpatrick, Sun Sentinel
3:49 PM EDT, July 18, 2011

For at least a decade, principals at South Plantation High allowed hundreds of thousands of dollars in school funds to be diverted to an outside bank account, bypassing rules imposed by the Broward School District to safeguard its money from misuse.

In one flush year, records show more than $350,000 was in the account; in the last two years, it was $200,000 or more. The district's chief auditor, Patrick Reilly, called it a "clandestine bookkeeping operation," and said it paid for about $4,200 for Florida Marlins tickets, $4,450 for shoes and clothes for the baseball team, and $1,600 for a Back-to-School barbecue.

The school even had a $75,000 investment fund, not authorized by the district.

District auditors say it's possible other schools are using similar accounts. "We don't usually ask the question, 'Where's your other, second set of books?''' Reilly said.

The fund, which mixed some district money with fund-raising proceeds, was managed by the Parent Teacher Student Organization, a group outside the authority of district auditors. It was used for about three years by current principal David Basile, and from 2000 to 2006 by Joel Herbst, who is now an area superintendent supervising some principals.

Basile flagged the account to auditors last year after concerns were raised by the PTO president and it was later closed at Basile's request. He declined comment for this article.

Herbst said he wasn't aware the school's use of the account violated district and state policies.

"Certainly, if I was aware I would have immediately taken appropriate measures to correct the deficiency," Herbst wrote in an email to the Sun Sentinel.

Reilly, however, said principals receive ample training in how to manage school funds. Funneling money "outside" the school creates an opportunity for fraud — and makes it difficult to track, he said.

For instance, auditors can't tell who used the Florida Marlins tickets. And the $4,450 check for shoes and clothes went to a "guy in Stuart," violating district-approved vendor contracts, he said.

"Did it get to the kids? I don't know," Reilly said.

District officials aren't sure how long the practice existed. Auditors have been able to review only two complete years of records, though they say it dates back at least 10 years. Area Superintendent Desmond Blackburn put it at 19 years, according to district records.

Auditors only learned of the practice last year and have spent months trying to unravel how much money was spent and where, said Reilly.

Basile, who has been at the school about four years, told district officials he didn't realize the account was in violation of district and state policies. Herbst said it was used for "the welfare of the school" and in keeping with the philanthropic mission of the PTO.

But putting the school money in that account meant auditors could not track it. They only saw financial reports on accounts signed by the principal and school bookkeeper each month.

The PTO isn't obligated to give its records to the district. It filed financial papers as a nonprofit organization dating back to at least 2004, but those records don't clarify how the money was spent.

Auditors might not have discovered the fund at all if PTO president Kay Arnold hadn't raised concerns, prompting Basile to close it last July, Reilly said. Arnold couldn't be reached for comment, despite three phone calls.

Both Herbst and Basile have been honored by the district for excellence as principals. Herbst was named Principal of the Year during his tenure at South Plantation. Basile was a finalist for the award this year.

Neither Interim Superintendent Donnie Carter or school board members could be reached for comment, despite each receiving at least one phone call and email.

Auditors are expected to present their report to the School Board on Aug. 2.

Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
Reader comments at:

To start with the most obvious education-related issue, what's the deal with the new un-named principal at Hallandale High School?

I'm really starting to get the impression that the new "cooperation" that we were all promised at the June 13th forum at the HB Cultural Center, by Herbst and Co. was just, a mirage.
Poof!
Now it's gone!

That meeting was years in the making, real YEARS, not metaphorical ones, and my friend and fellow HB resident Catherine Kim Owens of the Broward Schools Diversity Committee did a GREAT job of mobilizing people in the community to attend and was fair in moderating it.
A meeting that actually ran on-time and on-schedule, that rarest of things here in HB!

A meeting which, as we all know, in someone else's hands -I won't say her name- would have easily taken 2-3 times longer.

Yet a meeting that Hollywood-based Broward School Board members Ann Murray (District 1) and Jennifer Gottlieb, (At-Large), were no-shows at, even while At-Large member Robin Bartleman of Weston could make it.
Murray & Gottlieb?
Too busy.
Schedule conflicts, don't ya know!


Above and below, two checklists re progress mediating longstanding problems at Hallandale High School, from the Power Point presentation made during the forum.
June 13th, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Officials update residents on the state of three Hallandale schools
July 15, 2011
By Sergy Odiduro, Forum Publishing Group

A recent community meeting updated residents on the conditions and academic progress at three Hallandale Beach schools.

Discussion at the meeting, sponsored by the Broward School Board's Diversity Committee, the Hallandale Beach Education Advisory Committee and the Hallandale High School Task Force, centered on the high school, Gulfstream Middle and Hallandale Elementary School.

Several administrators highlighted positive aspects at their schools, including Hallandale Elementary, which pointed to its nine-year record as an A school.

"I can tell you for sure our school is headed in the right direction," said Brian Kingsley, principal at Gulfstream Middle.

Hallandale High School also touted its successes, reporting that 99 percent of its 2011 class participated in the graduation ceremony.

Despite this, lingering questions remained about the condition of the school's facilities.

A report detailing a site visit made in December revealed the observations of the diversity committee, some of whom were upset over conditions at the school.

The report, which described "prolonged years of neglect and lack of resources" at Hallandale High, included pictures of missing portions of a ceiling with exposed plumbing in the boys' locker room, frayed power cords, torn chairs on weight equipment, outdated textbooks, and noted a "a strong odor upon entering the school building."

In response to the report, the school is undergoing a series of upgrades aimed at addressing the top 20 most-needed renovations suggested by the committee.

At the meeting, South Area Superintendent Joel Herbst outlined a number of projects at the school, including new computers, textbooks and novels, a new hydraulic lift for the automotive shop, refurbished bathrooms, and a remodeled boys' locker room.

James Sparks, a member of the diversity committee who voiced concerns about the condition of the softball field, said he wants progress to continue.

"I'm not asking for anything other than what we deserve. I have seen tremendous improvements, but why did it take so long?" he asked.

The Rev. Josh Brown, who graduated from Hallandale High in 1978 and whose daughter also graduated from there, wrangled with officials at the meeting over whether irrigation or drainage was an issue in flooding near the school.

"The school opened its doors in 1977. We are talking about issues that still have not been addressed," he said.

Catherine Kim Owens, co-chairwoman of the diversity committee, said she hopes the conversation with school officials will continue and that the only way to change conditions is by more parents getting involved.

"That's one of the reasons why I joined the diversity committee," she said. "We need to get involved if we are not happy with the facilities. Unless we speak up, we are not going to get heard."

Just to give you a little more idea of how the forum went and the community's dis-satisfaction, watch this Channel Ten news video from a month ago:

Channel 10 News
Parents Upset Over State Of S. Fla. High School,
Work To Be Done To Fix Decade's Worth Of Problems
by Baron James
POSTED: Tuesday, June 14, 2011,
UPDATED: 11:28 am EDT June 14, 2011


So, is it that they have STILL not decided who it is yet, or, that they don't want, anyone to know who it is until they announce it officially this week, reportedly, Wednesday?

In some towns in this country, a new principal at an improving but still, admittedly, 'troubled' school, would be considered "news" and the local press corps would likely attend.

This part of South Florida is NOT one of those places, so if the School Board, in its infinte stupidity, is deliberately keeping us in the dark so they can have a surprise, they're only fooling themselves.
In the year 2011, nobody from the local news media will show-up at School Board HQ just to hear who the winner of their HS principal search is.

Which only gets to the dysfunctional, disconnected universe up there at Broward Schools HQ.

As I've said so many times on my blog, despite all their resources and personnel, Broward Schools and the School Board seemingly have no real sense of how to effectively communicate to parents and taxpayers in the year 2011, something made worse in our case by geography, since we are repped by the uncommunicative and invisible Ann Murray.
Just saying...

-----
Channel 10 News
Bob Norman's Blog
Superintendent Search: Joel Herbst Says He Won't Apply For Job
By Bob Norman
POSTED: Wednesday, June 22, 2011,
UPDATED: 1:28 pm EDT June 22, 2011


In case you didn't receive this article from me last week:

Friday, June 10, 2011

Stupid is as stupid does, but then practice makes perfect: Ann Murray & Broward County School Board pretend they care what public thinks -they don't!



Did you happen to see this post by the Sun-Sentinel's Cara Fitzpatrick yesterday titled, School board seeks public input on new superintendent, on their Schools blog?

Rather than watch the Broward School Board continue to engage in this costly charade, why don't we simply hire the highest-ranking person available in the consistently high-performing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools that is willing to come down here, and then move on?
Why all this pretense when not more than 2-3 people on the Broward School Board genuinely cares what parents and taxpayers think?

(Oh, that's right, I suggested that very thing two months ago when I publicly wondered why the Broward School Board was SO incompetent that they couldn't devise a plan that insured they had someone in place BEFORE the new school year starts.

For proof of the pretense, see some of Bob Noman's recent blog posts and stories about Broward Schools for Channel 10/WPLG-TV here,

That includes video of the following embarrassing School Board stories:
Plan To Build $5 Million Maintenance Building Under Fire
http://www.local10.com/video/28177995/index.html and Bob Noman: $25 Million Schools Building Sits Empty

The best evidence of the School Board's neglect and incompetency with regard to oversight is the reality all around us, including here in Hallandale Beach.

By the way, the link in the Fitzpatrick post below shows that all 4 forums are in Plantation and Fort Lauderdale.
Taxpayers and parents of Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, West Park, Pembroke Park, Miramar and Dania: no soup for you!


That sounds so familar...
Oh, that's right, the so-called Broward Schools Integrity Committee meetings of last year with the Butterfield Trio NEVER had a public meeting south of Fort Lauderdale, either, which I also mentioned at the time.


And did you already hear the news that despite the meeting being YEARS in the making, that is to say, YEARS OVERDUE, both Ann Murray and Jennifer Gottlieb will... yes, be no-shows for the Community Forum on Hallandale High School Monday night at the HB Cultural Center?
I was told this a few weeks ago and have heard nothing about them changing their schedules so they could attend.

Yes, once again, none of the people elected to REPRESENT Hallandale Beach on the Broward School Board will be in attendance, just as happened SO MANY times over the recent years with Carole L. Andrews, Eleanor Sobel and Ann Murray.

The first, Andrews, selfishly stayed in office far too long and abused her SE Broward constituents' trust after getting very sick by continually not showing-up for official meetings and workshops but refusing to resign so someone else could do the job right, even running for re-election even though she knew she was dying of cancer; the second, Sobel, flat-out lied to Broward voters while running for the School Board position and NEVER had any intention of serving out the entire four-year term, always keeping her eyes on the State Senate position she now holds; the third, Murray, is an incompetent, small-minded bigot who ran as as reformer and has rewarded voters by being among the single worst offenders on a very corrupt and sorry lot that the statewide Grand Jury said ought to be ABOLISHED.

Their personal, professional and political needs ALWAYS took precedence over the legitimate needs of this community's taxpayers and parents.

Nothing quite says I could care less like actually NOT showing up!

And whatever happened to that public meeting Ann Murray promised SE Broward parents MONTHS AGO when they showed up en masse at the Hepburn Center in HB one Monday night when Murray was there -her first time ever in HB for something non-political?-fully expecting her to listen and to be able to competently answer their questions, all of which was caught on tape by Channel 4 News and reporter Natalia Zea?

CBS-4 video of February 28, 2011 - Broward Committee Demands Action For Dilapidated School

As of today -NOTHING!
At least Murray and Gottlieb are consistent in their continuing indifference to us!

----------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
South Florida Schools blog
School board seeks public input on new superintendent
By Cara Fitzpatrick
June 9, 2011 11:19 AM

The Broward County School Board is asking parents, employees and community members to describe the qualities they'd like to see in a new superintendent.

Read the rest of the post at:

Monday's forum on Hallandale High School at the HB Cultural Center:
flyer fr 6 13 11 community forum.pdfflyer fr 6 13 11 community forum.pdf
142K View Download
6_13_community_forum_agenda_ppt.PDF6_13_community_forum_agenda_ppt.PDF
762K View Download
minutes_fr_5_19_11_tf_mtng.docminutes_fr_5_19_11_tf_mtng.doc
44K View Download