FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Peter Licata will have to continue to wait for school board members to vote on his contract agreement.
There are nine Broward County School Board members. On Thursday, three were absent, three attended by phone, and three were present in person.
“We will get through it,” Licata said.
Torey Alston, Daniel P. Foganholi, and Brenda Fam were absent. Lori Alhadeff, Debra Hixon, and Nora Rupert were on the phone, and Allen Zeman, Jeff Holness, and Sarah Leonardi were present.
“I’m disappointed that that’s not happening today,” Leonardi said.
Earlean Smiley, the interim superintendent, said the minimum number of members necessary to conduct business wasn’t met, so the vote had to be postponed. There needed to be six present.
“We have a planned structure process that went awry,” Smiley said about the outcome of the meeting.
Fam reported she was absent because of a scheduled medical procedure and Alston reported he couldn’t make it. Foganholi’s office reported he was out of town.
Anna Fusco, the president of the Broward Teachers Union, said she expected full attendance on a matter so important such as the contract of the new superintendent.
“Unless there was a dire emergency they should have been here,” Fusco said.
Licata, a former regional superintendent for the Palm Beach County school district who lives in Boynton Beach and has a doctorate from Lynn University and degrees from the University of Miami and Barry University, accepted the outcome.
“We agreed on today’s date publicly in the meetings, so if people aren’t going to be here they should have let us know then,” Licata said.
All of the School Board members — except for Alston and Fam — voted to hire Licata earlier this month.
Licata has worked for Palm Beach County’s public schools since September 1994 and has experience as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, and curriculum director.
“We’ll just reschedule and when everyone is back in town,” Licata said, “we’ll re-do this all over again.”