Chairman Torey Alston: "New Broward School Board has new focus"
MIAMI - Opening Tuesday's Broward School Board meeting, new Chairman Torey Alston said, "I'd like to acknowledge that this is the first regular school board meeting of this reformed board that looks like Broward county and is collectively competent with a diversity of experience," he said.
Alston is one of 4 members appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
The governor suspended 4 elected members after a grand jury report found malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty and incompetence.
Alston said the new board has a new focus. "I moved to reallocate a majority of our time to focus on student achievement with the prior school board spending only 20 percent on this effort," Alston said.
The board asked Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright to address the findings of the grand jury report with recommendations and actions that she's taken.
"Although this is my initial report regarding the grand jury, it will demonstrate that I took swift and immediate action once it was released," Dr. Cartwright said.
Dr. Cartwright points to effectively using school hardening grant money to improve campus safety — saying there are now16-thousand cameras on campuses that police can access. And that all schools now have a single point of entry and 80% have self-locking doors.
She also points to hand metal detectors randomly used at campuses around the district. "It's working. We are finding things and they're things we do not want students to have on campus," she said.
She also talked about more frequent training and enhanced systems that accurately report problems on campus. And how bond-supported construction projects are being completed more quickly.
She confirmed that three men mentioned in a letter from the department of education have either retired or resigned.
Alston said all these changes are free of politics. "Partisanship remains at the door. Regardless of who the governor is, he or she, I'm sure if there was a grand jury report some action would have been taken," he said.
The board also voted to stop paying legal bills of members who were removed. If they want to challenge their suspensions, they'll have to cover their own legal costs.