FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Less than a year into the job as the head of the Broward school district, Superintendent Peter Licata made a surprise announcement at Tuesday morning’s school board meeting: He plans to retire at the end of the year.
Licata, hired in July after a long career with the Palm Beach school district, told board members he planned to retire effective Dec. 31 due to a medical condition. However, board members moved to replace him immediately.
He said he told the board in a closed meeting last December that he was “receiving treatments” for the unspecified ailment.
“After conferring recently with my doctors, my wife and my four adult children, it is best that I retire from this incredible role as an educator after 30-plus years here in South Florida,” he told the board. “I am giving advance notice so you can properly prepare for the next superintendent.”
Right after the announcement, with no added comments or remarks, school board member Lori Alhadeff then added a motion to the board’s agenda to discuss an agreement to mutually separate with Licata immediately.
“We wish him the best and all his future endeavors, we hope that he is healthy, happy and he gets to spend as much time as possible with his family,” Alhadeff later said at a news conference after Tuesday’s meeting.
At that same news conference, Licata, without specifying the medical condition in question, addressed his departure.
“I’m certainly not being forced out. There’s no question about that, I think, by everyone’s belief that they were surprised by this,” he said. “This is something that happened over the weekend, Friday. I spoke with one of my doctors and he said you’re going to just have to spend — I’ve been working on this for a while. And he just indicated it’s, you know, you got some choices to make.”
Howard Hepburn, a deputy superintendent of the district, is now the new superintendent. He thanked Licata Tuesday.
“He’s taught me a lot over the years. His vision, his mission has been aligned with mine since we met,” Hepburn said. “So I’m so elated.”
Both Hepburn’s superintendent contract and Licata’s exit agreement will need to be hashed out, officials said.
Licata called Hepburn “as solid as is gets.”
“He is smart, he is charismatic and he is also very focused on kids,” Licata said.