Poor leadership is to blame for disastrous school repairs program

Prosper, Texas. A small town of 22,000 people just north of Dallas. If you take the name at face value, Prosper sounds like an idyllic place. People move there for many reasons, but primarily for its public schools.

Recently, the Prosper Independent School District completed a $710 million bond issue that included a $53 million football stadium for Prosper High School.

My first reaction: Wow! A $53 million stadium for a high school. That can’t be real. But I listened to opening day interviews of students, parents and staff attending the first home game at the stadium.

There’s a sense of pride and optimism and an unmistakable hope for the future of their community that is almost contagious. We can argue whether any high school needs a $53 million, 12,000-seat stadium. Folks in Prosper say they had no choice but to follow the lead of many other districts in Texas.

Which made me reflect on the recent news about the lack of progress in completing much-needed improvements to our local schools here in Broward County.

In 2014, Broward County taxpayers approved an $800 million bond, not to build college-sized stadiums, but to repair neglected and aging schools, to make needed safety improvements and to improve the technology in classrooms.

It would be hard to describe the implementation of the proposed improvements as anything other than an unmitigated disaster. The projects supported by the bond are not only years behind schedule, it is estimated the costs to complete them will take an additional $430 million. In fact, as the Sun Sentinel recently reported, “progress has been astoundingly slow, with 97 percent of schools yet to receive longpromised repairs. Work is complete at only eight of 233 schools.”

It gets worse. Many promised projects will never be completed, others will not meet ever-changing deadlines.

Some might argue that managing the scale of $800 million worth of projects would be challenging for any district. Sure. But is excusing incompetence the best we can do in Broward County?

By comparison, Prosper in Texas has nearly completed its $710 million bond, which passed in 2007, building 12 new schools, including the $120 million Prosper High School and stadium and a host of other facilities. They are now building a second new high school to accommodate the student growth flooding their district. In May of 2019, the Prosper ISD confidently put forward a new $1.3 billion dollar bond to accommodate continued district growth. The bond was passed with 85% of the vote.

But it goes beyond competence. The Broward school district admitted it needed $2 billion dollars to address all needed repairs, but it only asked for $800 million. Some may argue the district was politically expedient. I would argue it approaches negligent indifference, especially for our most vulnerable students in our county’s neediest schools.

It has taken more than six years to implement the modest school security improvements promised by Superintendent Robert Runcie back in 2013, in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 dead, including 20 children.

Rather than focus on school safety after Newtown, Runcie and the school board rejected a 2013 proposal to levy $55 million in new taxes aimed at school safety because they didn’t want a separate board to control the money. The proposal’s sponsor, then state Senator Eleanor Sobel, was focused on student and teacher safety and believed the district needed help handling that mission. If the tragedy at Newtown wasn’t warning enough, the school shooting in 2008 at Dillard High School should have been. The massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 proved Sobel right.

Yet school board members remain defiant. Why? Well for one, they have the full support of the Broward Teachers Union, which will spend big money to protect them despite getting very little in return for their members. The board and district leadership also have the support of Broward’s business leaders, who parrot statistics offered to them by the district. Never mind that, if these business leaders ran their businesses with the incompetence displayed by the superintendent and members of the school board, they would be out of business. Ultimately, they fear no repercussions from the voters of Broward County.

Some will say, the size and complexity of the Broward County School District make any comparison meaningless. There is no doubt that the Prosper Independent School District is different. But differences in size and demographics cannot explain the stark differences in delivering what should be a priority for any district, a secure, clean, and healthy school environment.

So, what’s the explanation? It’s about priorities and leadership. For the Prosper Independent School District, it’s the successful completion of promised projects, on time and on budget. It’s creative thinking, like selling naming rights to the Prosper High School stadium to a local company in a 10-year deal worth $2.5 million.

Wouldn’t a little bit of the pride, optimism and hope on display at the stadium’s opening be nice around Broward?

It took competent leadership to create that pride, optimism and hope in Texas. That’s true in almost any endeavor. Competent leadership would certainly be nice to have around here in Broward.

Remembering Wade George Allen

As an educator and local historian, I was saddened to learn that Wade George Allen passed away this week. I have spoken with many members of the community, both black and white, who have shared their experiences as students sent to schools to integrate them.

What I find tragic is the knowledge that no historically significant efforts have been made to preserve and share the stories of those students or that time period. Where are the stories of the black students bussed to Fort Lauderdale and Stranahan High School?

Or the stories of the white students who were bussed to Blanche Ely and Dillard High School?

The Broward County government and the Broward County School Board need to do something to collect and preserve these stories, not just for the collective knowledge of Broward County residents, but to honor the civil rights legacy and efforts of Wade George Allen.

Roberto Fernandez, III,

Dangerous rail lines

In responding to Sunday’s editorial, what about the threat that Brightline/ Virgin poses to the people of our communities? Their trains have already killed 32 people on their short route from Miami to Palm Beach since inception in January 2018.

They have insufficient safety equipment and, an independent government study confirmed, the corridor should be fenced.

They’re not yet anywhere near the 110 miles an hour at which they plan to

About tri-rail expansion

In response to Sunday’s editorial, “Brightline’s expansion threatens affordable, accessible computer rail”, I agree that commuter rail should expand to areas where we people live. And we should applaud Brightline for actually doing it.

We should criticize our government for not providing adequate funding for rail expansion and the pathetic state we are in when it comes to public transportation. Instead of tri rail having to beg to use the FEC tracks, why aren’t we pressuring our politicians to create more options and expand rail like Europe and Asia. So when a private company comes along and can do something that our government is inept at doing, we should feel fortunate.

Anil Nasta,

Sunrise

Fort Lauderdale

Trump’s appalling charity foundation

I am appalled to learn that President Trump misused $2 million designated for charity.

Trump held many fundraising rallies for children and our veterans. Instead of giving the money, collected from well-meaning contributors, to charity, he used it to fund his 2016 campaign and to purchase two portraits of himself.

The New York State court fined him $2 million and shut the foundation down.

That’s not enough. Trump should be arraigned on charges of receiving stolen property and theft by deception. He is not above the law.

Marsha L. Rosinger,

Delray Beach