Superintendent Vickie L. Cartwright is out of a job after the Broward County School Board voted to fire her Monday night.
Cartwright was fired with a 5-4 vote after a surprise motion by Daniel Foganholi, one of the several school board members who were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Four other DeSantis appointees — Ryan Reiter, Kevin Tynan, Manuel Serrano and school board chair Torey Alston — joined him. Alston is the only one of the group who will not be leaving office next week.
"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. "Based on recent systemic issues, the Board decided to go in a different direction."
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In mid-October, Alston criticized Cartwright's job performance, saying she had a "lack of vision," "questionable judgment" and "failure of leadership."
Just three weeks ago, the board gave Cartwright 90 days to address any concerns after an hours-long special meeting debating her future with the board.
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Her firing comes before four DeSantis-appointed board members leave the job next week to be replaced by elected members.
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. “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 board called a special meeting on Tuesday to address hiring an interim replacement.
Foganholi didn't have enough votes when he first brought up the motion, with two DeSantis appointees speaking out against the move. They later agreed to it, with Kevin Tynan being the deciding vote after asking for a minute to think about it.
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. Foganholi, who brought up the motion, had been appointed to the board earlier by DeSantis.
Broward's school district is Florida's second largest and the nation’s sixth-largest, with more than 270,000 students at 333 campuses and an annual budget of $4 billion.
