Broward schools will face new state investigation over construction issues, separation pay

The Broward School District will undergo another state investigation related to its troubled school construction program, according to a new memo from Superintendent Peter Licata.

Licata informed School Board members in a memo dated Feb. 1 that the inspector general for the Florida Department of Education plans to conduct an audit from 2014 to 2022, focusing on three areas:

• Any “intentional or willful actions” to pass an $800 million bond for school construction program, also known as the SMART bond, in 2014 “with insufficient or misleading information.”

• District employees responsible for roofing issues. Licata doesn’t name the employees but says those identified by the state do not currently work for the district.

• Separation packages from 2022 of three former employees — Chief of Staff Jeff Moquin; David Watkins, director of school climate and diversity; and Ron Morgan, assistant chief building official.

“As these items occurred prior to my leadership, I will utilize any and all departments and personnel to fully cooperate with this audit,” Licata wrote to School Board members.

Licata wrote the audit should start within a few weeks, and the inspector general is also reviewing school construction programs in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Bond-funded programs for construction and safety across the state were also reviewed by a statewide grand jury commissioned by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019, but Broward was the only one the grand jury found to be problematic.

“We are pleased to report that for the most part, they do appear to be relatively timely, on-budget and in-line with the covenants made by these school districts to the voters who approved them,” stated the grand jury report, released in 2022. “But there is one notable exception to this trend: The SMART Program, currently being administered by Broward County Public Schools.”

The grand jury concluded the bond was so poorly managed that DeSantis should remove five school board members who supported former Superintendent Robert Runcie. Four were still on the School Board when the report was released and were removed by the governor a week after the report was released.

The separation payments to the three employees came a few weeks after the grand jury report was released. An official from the Department of Education’s Office of Safe Schools asked then-Superintendent Vickie Cartwright in September 2022 to sever ties with employees who were named negatively in the grand jury report.

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Cartwright forced out three of the four who were named by the grand jury, saving only Judith Marte, deputy superintendent, who the grand jury accused of misleading the board. The grand jury report said Marte made statements to the School Board about the $800 million bond program that the grand jury called misleading, but Cartwright said Marte’s comments were accurate.

Cartwright entered into separation agreements with Moquin, Watkins and Morgan, paying them settlements ranging from 19 to 39 weeks of pay without School board approval.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel questioned the legality of these payments, since state law caps severance for most employees at six weeks.

A district lawyer argued this was a settlement agreement where they gave up the right to sue or disparage the district, not traditional severance, so the larger payment was allowed.

District policy typically requires the School Board to approve contracts over $50,000, and two of the payouts exceeded that. School district officials said it was handled by a risk-management insurance company, and these types of settlements don’t normally get School Board approval. School Board members learned of the payments after the Sun Sentinel made a public records request.

At the request of the education department’s inspector general, the district commissioned an audit of these payments last year, but a report from an outside firm was inconclusive as to whether the district did anything improper.

“This is the first I’m hearing/seeing this, and no one’s contacted me regarding this,” Morgan told the Sun Sentinel on Friday. “I will fully cooperate with any audit investigation.”

Neither Moquin nor Watkins could be reached for comment.

The other two issues mentioned in Licata’s letter — whether district officials misled the public about the $800 million bond and Broward’s mismanaged effort to replace roofs — were both written about in the grand jury report.

The report said that district officials in 2014 misled the public about the potential costs and scopes of the renovation projects and how quickly work would be done. The work was supposed to be completed by 2021, but less than half is complete, according to a December report to the district’s Bond Oversight Committee. The program is also more than $500 million over budget.

The district has made numerous changes to leadership since 2014 and has switched program management companies, but progress has remained slow.

The grand jury report also said the district’s roofing inspectors maintained standards that were so strict and time-consuming that it paralyzed the program.

While Licata didn’t identify the former roofing employees the state wanted to investigate, the grand jury was critical of former roof inspector M.L. Rouco, whom contractors complained was overly rigid in inspections. She retired before the grand jury report came out.

Rouco told the Sun Sentinel in 2022 she had been the subject of a criminal investigation that questioned whether she had improper ties to one roofing company, but was never charged. Rouco said at the time she was never paid by the company and was happy to show law enforcement her financial records.

Reached Friday, Rouco said she was unaware of a new investigation.

“All investigations, if done without a political agenda, are good; so they can ultimately reveal the mismanagement of the SMART Bond money, and reveal the true culprits of the failure,” she said.

Given all the issues identified have been investigated before, some School Board members questioned why the state is conducting a new review.

“The people in the separation agreements are gone already. I’m not sure what new information they’re looking to glean, but maybe they have something that’s different,” Board member Debbi Hixon said.

Board member Allen Zeman added, “I do not think this is necessary. These issues are things that were done in the distant past, and they’ve been the subject of extensive review.”

But Board member Torey Alston, whom DeSantis appointed to the School Board in the wake of the grand jury report, said he welcomes the investigation.

“State investigations and grand jury reports have put a spotlight on bad district culture, bad decisions and highlighted five former [School Board] members for not asking the tough questions,” he said. “This culture unfortunately is still present today with some new and old faces. I hope the district is 100% cooperative and transparent.”