RedBroward's video: Amateur tape of Channel 10's newscast with investigative reporter Bob Norman. August 2011.
Broward County School Board
K.C. Wright Administration Building,
600 SE 3rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
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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?
Surprise!!!
rbartleman at least writes more often...
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/#!/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...
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http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-school-maintenance-buildin20110814/10
Jennifer Gottlieb resignatio
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!
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/12/2356823/broward-school-board-member-jennifer.html
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
Bob Norman's Blog archive: http://www.local10.com/news/28120953/detail.html
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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.
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Jennifer Gottlieb resignation is proof that EVERYTHING surprises Ann Murray: the sunrise, her own shadow, gravity...
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.
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Miami Herald
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
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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.RelatedWatchdog 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.
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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.
