A month after the Broward County School Board voted to fire Dr. Vickie Cartwright as superintendent, they've decided to keep her on the job, for now.
With new members sworn in last week, the board voted Tuesday to overturn Cartwright’s Nov. 14 firing. But the board said they would continue to search for a possible replacement and make a final decision about Cartwright's future with the district in January.
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"The board has committed to me, that they're going to have an open mind when they come back and take a look at the update that will be provided. And I have full confidence and belief in what they say," Cartwright said.
Cartwright was fired with a 5-4 vote after a surprise motion by Daniel Foganholi, one of several school board members who were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis following a grand jury report into the Parkland school shooting. Four other DeSantis appointees — Ryan Reiter, Kevin Tynan, Manuel Serrano and school board chair Torey Alston — joined him.
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Four of the members who voted for the move are no longer on the board after new members were sworn in. Alston is the only one of the group who remains on the board.
"Dr. Vickie Cartwright is a wonderful individual, but leading the nation’s sixth-largest school district requires a hands-on leader and someone that will make real change," Alston said in a statement in November. "Based on recent systemic issues, the Board decided to go in a different direction."
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Three weeks before her firing, the board gave Cartwright 90 days to address any concerns after an hours-long special meeting debating her future with the board.
"I'm confident that they will keep an open mind and that they will see where we are after the 90 days in relation to those items that we mutually agreed upon and how we are going to proceed going forward," Cartwright said on Tuesday. "Because as I mentioned before, some of these items are things that frankly stick and we've already started turning the corner on. And some of these items, though, are very ingrained within the district. It took us years to get there. It's not going to happen in 90 days."
Cartwright was hired as interim superintendent in July 2021 and was named permanent superintendent in February. Cartwright replaced Robert Runcie, who resigned after perjury charges were brought against him.
“There are some great people who work for this organization, but toxic behavior continues to happen,” Foganholi said in making the motion to fire her. “This is about accountability.”
Some school board members said the motion was unfair since they had just asked Cartwright on Oct. 25 to address a long list of concerns.
“This action is impulsive and inappropriate at this moment, and I cannot support this,” Sarah Leonardi said.
The motion to fire her came at the end of the board's discussion of two audits criticizing the district's practices. Since DeSantis removed and replaced four board members in August, Cartwright has been frequently accused of failing to fix a problematic culture in the district.
