Broward school board member Adam Cervera called on state officials to conduct "a full scale review" of the district's finances after Gov. Ron DeSantis characterized the school district as a "disaster" and suggested a receivership to course-correct budget mismanagement making waves.
" We need transparency, we need accountability and we need to have the confidence that this mismanagement will not be ignored or swept under the rug," Cervera told media on Tuesday on a brief break from the school board workshop happening simultaneously.
On Monday Gov. DeSantis, who appointed Cervera to his seat, said the sixth-largest school district in the country is being run to benefit "the entrenched interests, particularly the school unions, rather than the parents and the students," and that the state should consider taking it over.
Cervera raged about the financial crises plaguing the district that have recently come to light: Suddenly backing out of an office-space lease worth nearly $3 million dollars that resulted in a lawsuit against Broward schools, misallocated teacher referendum money and a "botched multimillion-dollar procurement process" meant to find an entity to oversee construction projects.
" This crisis is not the result of bad luck. This is the result of years of mismanagement, wasteful spending, and a complete lack of proper oversight and it has only gotten worse in just the past few months," Cervera said. "We've seen scandal after scandal."
He called on state officials, including Florida's DOGE team and the chief financial officer, to look at the district's finances.
Broward School Board Chair Sarah Leonardi defended the school system. She told WLRN that it's inaccurate for DeSantis to call the district "a disaster."
" No one here is denying the fact that we've had a chaotic history over the last few years," Leonardi said. "While there are certain operational issues that'll come up in any large organization, I think we, as Broward schools, have really turned a page."
She noted that Broward schools — for the second year in a row — received an A grade from the Florida Department of Education, and had no D- or F-rated schools.
"I welcome the governor and his team to work collaboratively with us to find those inefficiencies and fix them so that we're spending taxpayer dollars as best as possible to deliver outcomes for students," she said.
READ MORE: Gov. Ron DeSantis: Broward school district 'a disaster.' Suggests state takeover may be necessary
Cervera had a message for any district officials part of the slew of wrongdoings: We will find you.
" If you are doing something wrong," Cervera said, "I'm going to call for your ouster... Nobody is safe in this building. We are going to fix this problem now."
In December, Chief Operations Officer Wanda Paul stepped down from her role shortly after Cervera publicly demanded her resignation, citing "operational failures" under Paul's leadership.
He hopes the rest of the board and Superintendent Howard Hepburn will join his call.
During Tuesday's workshop, committee members rallied around the district they serve by acknowledging recent shortcomings but rejecting the "disaster" label.
Board member Debbie Hixon thanked them for the support and said, "We are rowing the boat in the same direction because we all want our students to be successful."
Sunk dollars and schools' floating futures
The governor's and Cervera's comments come at a time when the school district is under intense financial pressure because of declining enrollment. It is currently trying to cover a budget gap of nearly $100 million by closing schools and imposing a hiring freeze to save money.
Broward has 10,000 fewer students than it did last year, digging a budget hole of $94 million in the district, which gets government funding based on student headcount. In five years, Broward County Public Schools is looking at a projected loss of over 25,000 students, according to district data.
The board is expected to vote later this month, Jan. 21, on whether to close four elementary, two middle and one high schools. School boundary shifts and changes may also be on the horizon for a handful of schools in Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Hallandale and Fort Lauderdale.
The schools eyed for closing are among the most under-enrolled in the district with more than 236,00 students and some 300 schools.
The closures are part of the multi-phase plan called 'Redefining Our Schools' intended to mitigate the under-enrollment problem. It involves adding new programs, combining schools, boundary adjustments, school closures and repurposing school sites.
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