Tag Archives: ryan petty

State Board Of Education: Broward Schools Owe $80 Million To Charter Schools, Sets Strict April Deadline For Compliance; Board Member Urges School Board To Find New Lawyer

Leave a reply
Marylin Batista, center, address Board of Education with Lori Alhadeff and Jamie Cole

Broward County’s dysfunction was on full display as School District officials appeared before the State Board of Education meeting Wednesday in Winter Park. Superintendent Peter Licata, School Board Chair Lori Alhadeff and School Board General Counsel Marylin Batista were summoned to appear before the Board to discuss their noncompliance with Florida law. On March 7th, REDBROWARD broke the news that the Board of Education opened an investigation into Broward Schools. Last week, Commissioner Of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. found probable cause the Broward School District failed to comply with laws requiring the sharing of revenue with charter schools.

In a March 19, 2024 memorandum, Diaz wrote, “I find there is probable cause to believe the Broward County School District (the district) is not in compliance with Florida law. Specifically, the district has failed to comply with section 1002.33(17), Florida Statutes (2019), regarding revenue it collected from an ad valorem tax it levied under section 1011.71(9), Florida Statutes.”

According to Diaz, a 2018 ballot measure pushed by the School District promised to raise funds for all public and charter schools. “However, Broward County School District decided to share only a small portion of the revenue generated under this voter approved tax and only shared it with certain public charter schools,” Diaz wrote.

Diaz stated, “[T]he district has knowingly and willfully refused to comply with the law.”

One day later, the School Board of Broward held a marathon session to decide how to respond to Diaz.

After several hours of discussion, the Board voted to give Superintendent Licata and Batista permission to negotiate a payment plan with nearly 90 charter schools in Broward.

While the Board referred to the “alleged” noncompliance, they signaled a willingness to resolve the matter before the April 17, 2024 Board of Education meeting in Tallahassee.

Superintendent Peter Licata with Lori Alhadeff

MODE OF ENFORCEMENT

Instead of the April meeting, Licata, Alhadeff and Batista found themselves answering questions Wednesday morning.

Under questioning by Board Member Ryan Petty, Batista admitted she thought they would have more time. Batista said she called Tallahassee to ask for more time to resolve the issue. Batista was told the State had moved on from a mediation mode. She said the State was now in a “mode of enforcement.

Ryan Petty

Most members asked Batista about the letter she sent to the Board of Education and a subsequent response by Broward School Board Member Torey Alston.

On Tuesday, Batista sent a letter to the State about the ongoing matter. As instructed at last week’s meeting, Batista included the language in the motion passed by the Board. Then, Batista stated the District was in full compliance.

For some reason, Batista included a fourteen page “memorandum of law” written by the outside legal counsel representing the District in a lawsuit brought by three charter schools.

While Jamie Cole of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman did attend last week’s School Board meeting, there was no discussion by the Board regarding the inclusion of a memorandum of law.

Instead of attempting to garner sympathy from the Board of Education, the Weiss Serota memorandum acted like the proverbial finger in the eye.

In addition to proclaiming the District was in full compliance with the law, the memorandum argued the Board of Education had no jurisdiction over the matter. The memorandum made a tenuous “separation of powers” argument—the Board could not act until the judicial branch heard the matter.

Andrew King, General Counsel for the Board of Education stated the Florida Constitution and law gave them jurisdiction over this matter.

Board Member Ryan Petty read Torey Alston’s response to Batista’s letter and memorandum into the record.

Alston said the Batista response did not “reflect the deliberate, three-hour board discussion and consensus authorizing both the Superintendent of Schools and General Counsel to end this looming issue.

Alston said he was highly disappointed. “The filing, attached to the letter, is 100% counter to the intent, tone and spirit of our prior collective discussion,” Alston wrote.

Petty asked Batista about Alston’s letter and whether the filing was authorized.

Batista claimed she received authorization at March 12th closed door meeting. A meeting she said Alston did not attend.

In a post on Twitter/X, Alston seemingly responded to Batista. He wrote, “Green light given a week prior to notice from the Dept and no one knew about today’s mtg. Doesn’t add ! Politricks! (Pull the transcript, if it exists).”

Petty said the School Board of Broward County should be frustrated with their general counsel. Petty said Batista appeared to be “contravening the will” of the Board by arguing the matter could not be resolved by April.

Petty made a stunning suggestion that Board Members cannot trust Batista’s judgment. Petty said Board Members should review all documents and memos Batista plans to send to outside entities before she sends them.

Following the testimony, the Board Of Education found Broward was out of compliance with Florida law and Broward would have to document compliance by the April 17, 2024 Tallahassee meeting.

Chairman Ben Gibbons stated the options the Board of Education will have at that meeting.

According to Gibbons, if the Broward School District is “unwilling or unable” to show compliance, the State can 1. Report the noncompliance to the State Legislature with recommended actions, or 2. Withhold funds from Broward Schools or 3. Declare Broward Schools ineligible to receive grants and monies.

Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr, on left, with Chairman Ben Gibbons
Florida Board of Education

Governor Ron DeSantis Signs School Safety Bill Supported By Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission

Leave a reply

From Governor Ron DeSantis office:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1421, which takes several measures to improve school safety in Florida. The steps taken by HB 1421 build on legislation over the last three years to implement the additional recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to make schools safer and improve youth mental health in Florida. In the Freedom First Budget, Governor DeSantis also approved a record $140 million for mental health and $210 million for school safety, including school hardening grants and youth mental health awareness and assistance training.

“Every child needs a safe and secure learning environment,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “By signing HB 1421, we continue to build on the many steps we have taken since 2019 to implement the recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, while also making record investments in mental health and school safety.”

“This legislation is a huge leap forward in school safety,” said State Board of Education Member Ryan Petty.“I want to thank Governor DeSantis for his bold leadership on this most fundamental issue. Nothing is more important than providing safe and secure learning environments for our children and educators. Extending the Commission’s work and requiring mental health and de-escalation training for safe-school officers will make a major difference in mitigating the risk of a future tragedy.”

“Every parent deserves to know their child is safe at school,” said Tony Montalto, President of Stand with Parkland. “This new law, which passed unanimously through the Florida Legislature, is an important next step in providing school safety assurances to families and students. Florida will continue to do everything possible to make sure our schools meet the highest safety standards and that mental health issues associated with school violence are being addressed.”

HB 1421 does the following: 

  • Extends the sunset of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission; 
  • Authorizes the Commissioner of Education to enforce, rather than just oversee, school safety and security compliance;
  • Authorizes safe school officers to make arrests on charter school property;
  • Requires all safe school officers to complete crisis intervention and training to improve knowledge and skills for response and de-escalate incidents on school premises;
  • Requires law enforcement officers to be present and involved in active assailant emergency drills; 
  • Requires school boards to adopt family reunification plans in the event of an evacuation; and
  • Requires that school districts must annually certify that at least 80 percent of school personnel have received mandatory youth mental health awareness training.

Since 2019, Governor DeSantis has prioritized school safety and mental health funding in Florida and has increased the amount of funding for these initiatives every year he has been in office.

In 2021, the Governor signed SB 590, which required school administrators to gather data on involuntary examinations of students and report data to the Department of Education (DOE); required school safety officers to receive mental health training; and required schools to give timely notification of threats, unlawful acts, and significant emergencies. In Fiscal Year 2021-2022, the Governor signed $368 million in the budget for school safety and mental health funding, including: 

  • $120 million for the Mental Health Assistance Allocation, an increase of $20 million over the previous year;
  • $180 million maintained for the Safe Schools component of the Florida Education
  • Finance Program (FEFP); and
  • $6.5 million for the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to train teachers and staff for emergencies. 

These bills strengthened the protection of children by increasing communication and notifications prior to a student being subjected to an involuntary examination, and required additional mental health training for teachers and students in teacher preparation programs.

In 2020, the Governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 70, Alyssa’s Law, which required DOE to utilize funding and work with public schools to implement a panic alert system to ensure real-time coordination between first responders. For the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year, the Governor signed $342 million for school safety and mental health funding, including: 

  • $100 million for Mental Health Assistance Allocation, an increase of $25 million over the previous year;
  • $180 million maintained for the Safe Schools component of the FEFP;
  • $3 million for recurring funding to gather an analyze data from social media and state agencies; and
  • $8 million for Alyssa’s Law, to implement a panic alert system between schools and emergency services. 

In 2019, the Governor enacted legislation to implement school safety recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission and issued Executive Order 19-45 to require the Department of Education to communicate best practices for school safety to all school districts. In Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the Governor approved $317 million for school safety and mental health funding including: 

  • $180 million for the Safe Schools component of the FEFP;
  • Over $80 million for Mental Health Assistance Allocation and for Youth Mental Health awareness; and
  • $50 million for school hardening grants to improve security of school campuses.