Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a grand jury up on its recommendation Friday afternoon to remove four Broward School Board members after a scathing report that accused them of having “engaged in acts of incompetence and neglect of duty.”
The removals are effective immediately for the four sitting members: Patricia Good, Donna Korn, Laurie Rich Levinson and Ann Murray. The School Board members were notified of their terminations by email Friday.
There was a fifth member who was recommended for removal, but she is no longer on the School Board: Rosalind Osgood, who resigned in March to successfully run for the state Senate.
The 122-page grand jury report details mismanagement within Broward schools after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland in 2018. The grand jury report was completed in April 2021, but was publicly released more than a year later, on Aug. 19.
In announcing the suspensions, DeSantis said, “These are inexcusable actions by school board members who have shown a pattern of emboldening unacceptable behavior, including fraud and mismanagement, across the district.”
“We hope this suspension brings the Parkland community another step towards justice,” he said. “This action is in the best interest of the residents and students of Broward County and all citizens of Florida.”
Levinson issued a statement Friday saying DeSantis had “overturned the will of the voters” and that the grand jury was a “guise” for school safety, but really a pretext to firing the School Board members.
“What country is this? What Governor DeSantis did is un-American and undemocratic,” she said. “This is all about political retribution for not firing Superintendent Runcie. It’s about blaming the Superintendent, and any School Board Members who supported him, for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. All four Board Members were elected by the people multiple times, including post tragedy. My heart will always go out to all the families and community. Because you may disagree on local policy decisions is not a reason to remove someone from elected office.”
“This action is authoritarian-like and has no place in the United States of America where the voters decide who represents them.”
Reaction to the termination was swift: Max Schachter, whose son, Alex, was killed in the Parkland shooting, considered it “payback” that the School Board members were suspended. “Karma can punch back!” he tweeted as he thanked the governor.
Tony Montalto’s daughter, Gina, was also among the 17 people murdered. He said he took issue with School Board members who called it politics, especially when School Board races are nonpartisan.
“They failed to manage the superintendent, they failed to carry out their duty, they failed every citizen of Broward County, and especially our children,” he said.
Still, “it’s hard to feel like justice when we lost our beautiful Gina,” he said.
Andy Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed, said the governor is still coming through on a personal pledge to hold government officials accountable for the tragedy in Parkland.
“That meant everything to me,” he said.
Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was killed, said the governor did the right thing.
“The students of Broward deserve to go to school in an environment that’s safe,” he said. “There’s no excuse for the condition of many of the schools and the lack of progress on the bond.”
But the governor’s action drew condemnation from the Broward Teachers Union. President Anna Fusco said it was “deplorable to put politics over students.”
“I do not support taking any elected officials out, especially ones who did not commit any crime,” she said. “It’s politics over people, that’s what it is in a nutshell.
“The SOB who pulled the damn trigger, that animal who is sitting in jail, that’s who is responsible for Parkland. That’s the person to blame.”
The board members were part of a majority on the School Board who supported former Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie. The grand jury indicted Runcie on perjury charges in April 2021, and much of the report is highly critical of his leadership. Runcie stepped down in August 2021.
Among the findings and allegations in the report:
Runcie and the School Board, “through fraud and deceit,” mismanaged an $800 million bond referendum, failing to renovate schools and leaving students “in decrepit, moldy, unsafe buildings.”
The school district delayed installing fire alarms with 40-second delays recommended by a former chief fire official that could have avoided a deadly evacuation during the Parkland shooting.
The business group Broward Workshop, whose membership included Runcie, wielded influence over School Board members to keep Runcie in power, despite problems in the district.
Runcie frequently lied to the board and the public.
The school district has shown “an almost fanatical desire” to manage its image and “feel that they are at war with the local media,” especially the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
A week ago, Levinson called the grand jury report “a political hatchet job.”
Good called it “unfortunate that this grand jury process has been weaponized and politicized in such a way to retaliate against board members who disagreed with the Governor’s views.”
And Korn said she “looked forward to reviewing that information and reassuring our community that I have always placed our students first.”
Four newly appointed School Board members
DeSantis immediately named four replacements to the Broward County School Board:
Torey Alston, a county commissioner who was appointed to an empty seat on the commission, replaces Good through November 2024.
Manual “Nandy” A. Serrano, a member of the Florida Sports Foundation board of directors, and CEO and founder of Clubhouse Private Wealth, replaces Levinson.
Ryan Reiter, past president of the Broward Young Republicans, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and director of government relations for Kaufman Lynn Construction, replaces Murray.
Kevin Tynan, an attorney and former chairman of the Broward Republican Party, replaces Korn. In 2009, he was appointed by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist to replace suspended School Board member Beverly Gallagher.
Only Alston will serve more than three months. The other three seats will be temporary until the November general election. Levinson and Murray did not run for re-election. Korn is in a runoff for her seat. If she wins in November, it’s possible DeSantis would remove her again.
When DeSantis suspended former Broward Sheriff Scott Israel for systemic failures surrounding the school massacre, he said he would not remove him again should voters re-elect him sheriff.
“No, no, no. The people can make that decision going forward,” DeSantis told reporters in October 2019.
With the addition of the four new members, the majority of the Broward School Board is now appointed by Florida’s governor; Daniel Foganholi was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in late April to fill Osgood’s vacant seat on the Broward County School Board.
DeSantis asked the Supreme Court to convene the grand jury in 2019 to focus mostly on safety and security issues statewide in the wake of the Parkland tragedy, although the focus morphed into corruption within the Broward school district.
At least part of the report’s delay was a result of appeals by certain School Board members. Some members fought to have it redacted or expunged. When a county judge rejected the requests, they tried to have an appeals court keep their names out of it. The 4th District Court of Appeals twice denied their appeals this summer, the most recent time on July 27. They appealed again to the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear it.
Staff writer Scott Travis contributed to this report.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com or 954-572-2008. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash
