1st Big Political Figure Opposes School Bonds

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo on Wednesday became the first high-profile political figure to oppose the $800 million school bonds.

pines

 

Elected first in 2004, Castillo said he opposed the bonds because they offer nothing to charter schools.

If approved by voters in November, the bonds will pay for repairs, renovations, new construction and technology at district run schools.

Pembroke Pines operates an extensive group of city-owned charter schools which are so popular that there is a lottery to gain admittance.

Charter schools are part of the public school system, but are operated separately.

Money for schools are in two pots — one funding the day-to-day operations and the other paying for construction, renovations and purchases of equipment.

State funds pay for some of the operating budget of charters like Pembroke Pines.

It is the capital improvement money from the state that the county is reluctant to share.  The $800 million in bond proceeds will supplement money from the state in this capital improvement fund.

School Superintendent Robert Runcie has offered none of the bond money to charters.

Pembroke Pines’ struggle for capital improvement funds from the Broward district has continued for years, long before the bond issue was planned. The city lost a law suit at one point over the construction and renovation money.

Castillo’s opposition can’t help the chances of the bond issue.  The Havana-born Castillo has ties to the Hispanic community.

He has a law degree and has held several top administrative jobs in Broward County government and the federal government.

Castillo currently works as director of strategic planning and research at the Broward Sheriff’s Office.  His wife Lisa Castillo is Sheriff Scott Israel’s chief of staff.

 

Here are his comments, e-mailed to Browardbeat.com:

The school district’s capital bond program will not share funds equally with public charter schools. Funds will only benefit district public schools, intentionally continuing to exclude the legitimate capital needs of other public schools.

Yet all tax payers will be taxed exactly the same as everyone else, even those parents of the ever growing public charter schools who will be shut out of any capital improvement.

I cannot in good conscience support so unethical a proposition.

Therefore I will be voting NO on the school board’s bond program — something that I would have otherwise have supported, if it had been crafted fairly and presented ethically.



39 Responses to “1st Big Political Figure Opposes School Bonds”

  1. Heard around Broward County excluding PInes says:

    Who?

  2. Amazing says:

    Will Angelo now respond to this article with a long-winded post that takes up 3000 characters?

    Discuss.

  3. PP Parent says:

    The School Board tried to stop the Pembroke Pines charter schools. The chickens are home home to roost now.

  4. Sam The Sham says:

    Maybe Angelo is too busy to respond since being demoted to his new “do-nothing” job at the jail.

  5. Observer says:

    Why should I, an east Fort Lauderdale resident vote to give my money to better the charter schools in Pembroke Pines? 3/4 of the population of Broward County is effectively barred from utilizing the benefits of PPCS.

    A lot of the newest Broward County Public schools are in Pines.

    Then what? With this money grab are we going to give money to Renaissance?

    What about those charter schools in the low economic/minority areas?

    Vote no on the bond because you can’t trust these people with the money.

    And paying off charter schools to get votes is wrong too

  6. Dan Lewis says:

    There will certainly be a coordinated, effective opposition campaign to this ill-thought out bond plan, not that one will be necessary to defeat this in November.

  7. What says:

    Angelo big as in…mouth?…ego?

    I see a city commissioner of one of many Broward cities. He isn’t even a mayor.

    Call me when a mayor of a major city like mike ryan weighs in on the issue.

    Discuss…

  8. Broward says:

    If the three time demoted Sheriff Israel right hand man and abuser of tax payer dollars by getting paid at BSO and Pines at the same time which is double dipping an illegal is against it, then I suggest to everyone vote for it. Anything Angello does is not in the best interest of anyone but himself and his BSO boss Israel. Angello has been seen on BSO time several times handling Pines business. How does the Sheriff “Mr. Found Guilty of Ethics Violations” let this continue to happen. The roosters have been let in the hen house and all of Broward taxpayers should be very skeptical of anything Angello or the Sheriff are for or against??

  9. Chaz Stevens, IT Dude says:

    Angelo;

    Don’t let them mock your writing style.

    I have a pair of 30″ monitors strung together.

    Let’s see if you can outdo the Unabomber Manifesto!

  10. Charter Schools are Fraud says:

    We are all on to the scams related to Charter Schools.

  11. Outraged Taxpayer says:

    I’ll be voting “no” on the school bonds.

    If proposal terms were changed to cover Pembroke Pines Charters and other nonpublic schools, then I’d vote “NO NO NO.”

    By the way, Runcie can shove those fat pay raises for his three fave administrators.

  12. Off the boat/plane says:

    Look at Angelo, fresh off the boat/plane from Europe and already disenfranchising
    75% of the students who live in Pembroke Pines. Class act. No wonder Israel is looking to get rid of you. Thank god he likes your wife.

  13. Señor Censor says:

    Angelo the biggest welfare recipient of the all, two large salaries for doing nothing.

  14. Becky Blackwood says:

    I have just spent the last two Tuesdays in Board Workshops with the new Facilities Chief Derrick Messier, discussing the methodology that will be used with the Needs Assessment report that was generated in the last 5 months.

    It is the first time since I came to Broward County Schools in July 1996 that I have seen methodology created by this District that follows the criteria used in Miami Dade County Schools in the early 1990’s. It’s about time. The Needs Assessment prioritized list will not be ready until this weekend for public view but at this time I am looking forward to the information with enthusiasm.
    With an $800 million dollar bond, the needs will outweigh the amount of the bond.

    For those who know me, I would be the first one to not support the bond if the same Needs Assessments were performed without appropriate analysis, but I am seeing something different that is not the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” mentality. I am also pleased to see the School Board members see the necessity to support all of the public school students, not just all of the needs in each of their respective districts. The methodology does not favor one district over another, only the poor construction conditions of our most neglected schools. Children need a healthy building environment to learn, too. The analysis is comprehensive and equal to the technical resources of the 21st Century – not the 1950’s and 1960’s mentality I experienced while I worked there from 1996-2010. I hope those of you who are leery and rightly so, will join me with guarded reservation to see the finalized and prioritized needs assessment before making a final decision to vote no for the bond.

    As for Pembroke Pines Charter Schools, my inspection department at the Broward County School District did the inspections on their schools when they were constructed, to insure they met the current State of Florida public school design and construction code requirements – which they did.
    I was told the purpose of this was if these charter schools were not successful, they would sell them back to Broward County Public Schools and get their money back.

  15. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    Buddy,

    At the Pembroke Pines Commission meeting last night, School Board Chair Patty Good appeared to say that the district will present their “plan” for how they will spend this money if the voters approve it. That plan will be released to the public on August 12th.

    Afterward, it is agreed that the City and the School Board will meet to discuss the fairness of that plan. Charter schools are public schools. They are supported by the very same tax dollars that all of us pay for public education. The discrimination against some public schools for the benefit of others insults parent choice and robs the public education of the value that only parent choice can offer in terms of improving the quality of public education at every public school.

    It is the height of irony that the media focuses on how well charter schools perform, but never seem to mention that they are forced to do it on 66 cents on the dollar to what district schools allocate to themselves — an amount that district schools say isn’t enough.

    In Pembroke Pines, since 1996, we have provided 5.600 seats of elementary, middle and high school to offset the overcrowding crisis created by the School Board when they took our developer paid dollars and spent them in other parts of the county, leaving one of the fastest growing communities in America with a critical shortage in school seats.
    The city never wanted to go into the school business. We were forced to do it because the school board at that time was too inept to solve the problem of overcrowding that they alone created.

    So we went into the charter school business to provide more seats and every family in Pines drew benefit, some because their kids attended the new charters. Others because their district public schools were less crowded as a result.

    But we didn’t just run a charter school program. We became the largest municipally run charter school system in the United States, fully accredited, with fully certified teachers, our buildings were constructed to school construction standards, we graduate 98% of our students sending virtually all of them to college, needless to say all of our schools are A rated.

    And this left the school board fuming with anger.

    How dare we succeed at something that they alone are supposed to be doing? How dare we provide a comparison to them that parents can shop against when seeking a public school for their child, thus robbing them of their God given monopoly over public education? How dare we solve a school overcrowding crisis that they alone should solve or no solution at all?

    How dare we. We must be taught our place. So they try to starve us, yet we endure. They send the best lawyers against us, yet we endure. They send every bureaucrat they can find to confound us, yet we endure.
    Beyond that, we do well, except in the financial area where we are in deep difficulty. We ask parents to chip in and they offer the donations they can in this difficult economic time.

    Now the school board comes forward with a bond issue, understandably many of our schools need repairs though they say the money is for technology…whatever.

    And they have the gall to ask my city for a resolution of support, having previously communicated to us via staff that we would again be excluded from any benefit from the additional taxation.

    They want us to endorse a new tax. To be placed on all homes and businesses equally. So that they can continue their pattern. Of only sharing that money with some public school students. Not all of them.

    But wait, there’s more.

    On August 12th, we were told last night, they will public their “list of projects” and we should be pleased “by their spirit of collaboration.”

    OK.

    Show me.

    When we teach kids, the 3R’s is only one piece of the necessary curriculum. Also necessary is an example about how to properly live life. And sharing alike, treating business partners with respect and benevolence, is actually a value that can’t just be talked about. It has to be shown.

    I’m personally willing to pay more tax to help our schools, but not if the way those dollars are distributed continue to help carry out some evil, unethical, passive aggressive, thinly disguised and selfish agenda to confound parent choice and charter school success in public education. No way can I support something like that in good conscience, though it’s absolutely something we would support if it was done fairly.

    They have a plan to show by August 12th? They have a new way of looking at things? Fine. Show me.

    Peace.

    Angelo

    FROM BUDDY:

    The priority list was taken out of the hands of the elected School Board and placed in the hands of unelected bureaucrats headed by Superintendent Robert Runcie.

    Priorities only mean something if you believe the people making the promises.

    How many of the promises made by the proponents of former bond issues were broken? There are millions of dollars in renovations and new construction that were promised that remains undone to this day.

  16. Kindergarten Mentality says:

    Castillo is acting like a typical 5 year old brat when it comes to the bond. I would have some respect for him on this issue if he opposed the bond for valid reasons but to say he does not support the issue because he does not get his share is childish. Growing up, he must have been that kid in the sandbox that would stomp the sand castles because the other kids didn’t ask him to help build them.

  17. tell the truth says:

    @becky blackwood
    wow. someone paying you to post that?
    you just lost 99% of any credibility from me by writing that you sat with a newbie facilities chief who had some papers with a needs assessment that I presume is a priority list for how the money from the $800,000,000.00 bond will be ‘allocated’. Allocated is not the same as ‘spent’. Or will be spent.

    still voting NO.

  18. Ghost of McLovin says:

    Regardless of Angelo’s opposition, I am voting no. I WILL NEVER VOTE TO INCREASE TAXES UPON MYSELF. Although “Bond” sounds great, it is a tax that gets paid by taxpayers through their property tax bill. TAX TAX TAX

  19. Becky Blackwood says:

    To Tell the Truth,

    No one paid me to write what I wrote above. Evidently, you did not read closely what I wrote. I agree with you this is just the first step and an accurate Needs Assessment needs to follow industry standards which I had never seen before now, even when I was an employee at the District. In the past, political demands, not construction deficiency needs were the major priority, omitting schools with greater deficiencies that truly required the funding necessary to correct those deficiencies. Ask those parents at Northeast High School, Stranahan High School and others the public will finally see on that publicized list, just to name a few. We still have buildings that are older than 50 years old that need critical attention. Broward Public Schools’ Needs Assessments in the past have been more reactionary to political pressure,development growth and gross ineptitude of a previous superintendent, rather than an across the district analysis of all schools with an equitable application of available funding.

    If you had been a part of the Mold and Mildew remediation project (which in some cases exists in schools today)as I have, you would understand the importance of providing a healthy environment for students to learn, teachers to teach without experiencing resulting illnesses (i.e., autoimmune diseases, asthma, chronic upper respiratory illnesses)and support staff who experienced the same conditions. I am only looking at this program, one step at a time. Right now, it is today’s “equitable” Needs Assessment identification process. Even I said above, I am waiting to see the list. I guess I am an optimist in hoping there can be changes to the Facilities program after the nearly 20 years outcry from the public and 2-3 grand juries I have participated in. Let’s wait and see. As being paid to make my comments, I have personally paid and been financially impacted by the positions I have taken on behalf of the public in the past. I will continue to give my opinion, good or bad, for or against the bond. I really haven’t made up my mind and I thought my post above said that. We still have a long way to go – cleaning up the future design and construction contracts, getting qualified personnel to manage the projects, applying industry standard procedures that will speed up the design and construction process and last, code compliance but not least of all, ACCOUNTABILITY.

  20. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    Dear Kindergarten:

    I’m sorry you feel that way.

    I’ve been an elected official in my city for 11 years now and throughout that time have tried, countless times, as have all of my city colleagues, to come to a solution to the structural deficit problem created by the school board’s choice not to fund any of our capital needs.

    At every juncture we have been met with refusal, excuses, failed promises of “joint cooperation in Tallahassee,” and protracted litigation during financial times both good and bad. They simply don’t want to help us even though we’ve always been helpful to them, financially and otherwise.

    For us, and for the residents of our city, it comes down to an issue of basic fairness. The distribution of tax payer dollars to all public school students is a call to fairness.

    Charter schools are part of the uniform system of public education set forth in the Florida Constitution and complete denial of our capital needs, which all schools have, including ours however new you believe they are, is in our opinion a harsh and selfish policy to hold.

    Even when we tried to offer a reasonable compromise to them they said no. No and no and just no. Are they childish too in your view?

    When all members of a consortium, as is today the case with public education (it is no longer a monopoly) cooperate in partnership, each looking out for the interests of the other, as good partners do, kids win and educational standards improve. When the relationship is a one-way street, it doesn’t work.

    This is a bad recipe for a marriage and equally a bad in business relationships. They talk cooperation, they are well versed in rhetoric. But behind that talk is the emptiness of another agenda.

    Nothing would give us greater pleasure than to see a good, strong, mutually supportive partnership exist between Broward Public Schools and the City of Pembroke Pines. Such is the most natural of outcomes and I fully embrace it.

    But when we seek to have that kind of a relationship, we must put in the effort. We must ascribe seriousness not in idle talk but in the way we operate to ensure that these partnerships thrive. When Flanagan High School needed a stadium, when they needed field lights, when Walter C. needed land for their school, when we were asked to rezone the land where West Broward High School now sits, losing millions of tax dollars in the process, when we were asked for many years to provide SRO services to all public schools for free, my city didn’t hesitate to help the school board. Never once.

    When we asked them for a lousy $3 million a year that we could not get by law from any other source to help make our charter school budget flush, they repeatedly said no. Mind you, they have what? A $4 billion budget over there? And what are we, Broward’s second largest city? And after all we’ve done to help them they can’t assist us with an understandable need?

    And you call that childish?

    Please.

    All relationships have rules of engagement otherwise they just don’t work for all involved. We want a great relationship with them and we show it. They say they want the same with us but they don’t. With them, what’s ours is theirs and what’s theirs is theirs. There is no foundation for a good relationship in that strategy but I never give up hope that the actions of the school district will one day catch up with their rhetoric.

    Our students are public school students. They should not be deprived of the tax dollars we all pay on some rational basis simply so that the school board can be abusive with their authority.

    If we want to become a mutually supportive public school family, each fully vested in the success of each member of that family, it’s not enough to just say those things. We have to live by that code. Our city has always been willing to do that. We hope they will one day come around.

    Angelo

  21. Ha Ha Ha says:

    @2 – make that TWO long-winded posts (so far!)

  22. PandaBear says:

    If Runcie and his crew had a thirty trillion dollar budget each year, they’d still claim a deficit. They mismanage funds like a bunch of drunken sailors. Look at what he did with his three so-called “raises” two weeks ago…that we know of… I don’t trust any one of them with my money. Do you?
    Just vote NO! and stop bickering about nonsense like a bunch of children. This is why Runcie disrespects us. This is why he doesn’t take us seriously…because we act like children! Just say: NO! Get it? It’s plain and simple: NO!

  23. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    I never cheat my customers.

    Angelo

  24. Becky Blackwood says:

    It was my understanding a major amount of state money went to the charter schools last year for maintenance of their facilities while the public school districts maintenance funding was virtually ignored.

  25. City Activist Robert Walsh says:

    Wow I am glad are tax dollars are being spent so efficiently. Mr. Castillo works for BSO, I know you took a pay cut Ang, but realy? I mean he posted @ 8 in the morning. I mean come on. So basicly we are paying you Angelo to bullshit on blogs? I mean I could see a couple sentences but I mean that would have taken me half the day to comment the way he does(and its not the first time) . No one elected that I know supports this bond.. The Super should look @ his own staff. I mean do any of you support this bond. Mr.Runcie can find the money. To tax the residents another fifty($) here, fifty(50) there is just not right.

  26. Pines says:

    Angelllo. Give us all a break. Your posts are ridiculous and boring. Nobody cares what you think or your eleven years of nothing but arrogant and self serving service. You are double dipping from Pines and BSO and should be fired from both and stripped of your pensions. That complaint is in the process of being filed. You are an arrogant asshole and your wife another one abusing taxpayer dollars is as nasty and sneaky as they come….

  27. Big Political Figure? says:

    I was expected someone, um, well, “Big.”

    Who cares about a commissioner in a town that developed too fast to allow the school board to build them new schools, so they went ahead and built on their own to please their developers. Too bad, Pines.

    I live out west, but look at some of these schools out east. It’s horrendous what these children have to live with in these old, rotted buildings. And yet you want to cry foul about your buildings that aren’t even 20 years old? Grow up.

    Broward County Schools is exactly that, Broward County Schools. They have to look out for what’s best for Broward County Schools, not just Pines. So take your ball and go home. Who cares about the minority kids that climb thru puddles in the halls to get to class, because let’s face it, as long as you have the newest schools in Pines, you will still be re-elected over and over. And that’s what we really care about, right?

  28. Have Your Cake & Eat It Too?!? says:

    So to summarize Castillo’s line of bullshit, charter schools should be free from regulation, free to cherry-pick students, etc., but then when it comes to funding they should get the very same funds too! I bet all the drug companies would love to get all the government funding with none of the safety regulation, etc. too – but they aren’t getting it, and neither should charters!!!

    http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/how-charter-schools-cherry-pick-students/

    http://springforhouse.org/restore-school-funding/79-restore-school-funding/95-ten-reasons-charter-schools-harm-children

    http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/02/186937/charters-polish-their-image-cherry-picking-students

  29. Former School Board Insider says:

    Where is the list of schools that the proposed bond will fund improvements to? How are these schools being chosen? By whom? What exactly is this needs assessment and how does it work? Too many unanswered questions.

    FROM BUDDY:

    Good question. The School Board gave up the job of picking the locations that would get bond money to Superintendent Robert Runcie, who says he will use an indecipherable formula to make his decision. What this really is doing is putting the spending power in the hands of an unelected bureaucrat and his hand-picked staff.

  30. Real Deal says:

    Character attack is the last exhale of a lost argument.

  31. tell the truth says:

    To Becky Blackwoods comments implying support for the needs assessment/$800MM bond.
    Let them do their needs list with the budget they have.
    The bond will be DOA on Nov. 4.
    As to the mold in school buildings and classrooms, lets go back in history to the late 1980s when after the first construction bond Miller Meier Kenyon and Cooper got hundreds of millions of dollars of ‘design’ work from SBBC. And every design had issues. Some or many were deficient. Defective construction followed. Two grand juries or three? I can’t remember the exact number.

    The A/E’s were awarded design contracts again and again in spite of incompetence. many Facilities hires (RA’s and PE’s) were from the design firms, then they continued to be awarded work. I wondered if there were ever kickbacks. Well too late. Water under the bridge (or in to building).
    No bond. Get it done with URS running the show for the millions they now get as Program Mgr. or whatever the out source called it.

  32. Becky Blackwood says:

    All of the schools and administrative sites deficiencies will be available for the public’s viewing no later than August 12th but possible as early as today on the School Board website. The deficiencies were prioritized by the following criteria: Safety, Roofs, HVAC including the indoor air quality, Building Envelopes, Cafeterias, Media Centers, Art and Music, Athletics (including playgrounds) and Assemblies. The community at each school will be included in the decision as to the selection of the deficiencies that should be addressed. In a school district that is the 6th largest in the United States with 250 schools and little to no maintenance state funding in the last 4 years, much less money for renovations, replacements or new construction, it is unrealistic to believe $800 million will cover all of the deficiencies and prioritization must be applied to the criteria above.

    I have been in construction for nearly 30 years, either in design, construction, code compliance and presently an adjunct professor teaching building construction management for a bachelors program. The Needs Assessment process presently being presented is equitable and industry standard. It is the first time I have seen this at Broward Schools since I became employed there as a construction project manager in 1996. It is the first glimmer of realistic change after 20 years of grand juries. I am not saying to fully trust the whole process but we have to start somewhere. Be assured, I and other members of the Facilities Task Force are keeping a watchful eye on each step. Derrick Messier, the new Chief Facilities Officer, attended our meeting this past Wednesday and has assured our members he will be at our monthly meetings as the changes in Facilities progress. Our members are very knowledgeable about the methods used to by-pass construction principals and practices – some, like me, more closely than others. We know where the pitfalls are and our committee was formed at the recommendation of the Grand Jury. We represent the public’s best interest. I only ask that you take an active interest and keep the pressure on to keep politics out of the process – as difficult as that may seem in Broward County.

  33. Alice McGill says:

    The population demographics have shifted drastically in Broward County in the past few years. The current building craze is for “luxury” rental units for young professionals. Very few single family homes are being built for families with children.
    No one should vote for this extravagant bond issue until the actual seats needed for students at each school is figured into the equation. Some consolidation of schools should happen. Excess buildings could be used for other needs such as vocational training or sold.
    I will vote NO unless every line on the needs assessment is explained and is valid.

  34. Charter Parent says:

    Angelo is right. Why should I as a charter school parent vote for this bonds when the School Board has done everything they can to end charter schools? My son is getting much more attention and a better education in his charter school. The discipline problems are minimal and the teachers are more caring, interested and willing to interact with parents. When I call the school, I get answers and not the run around. Charters are schools and deserve equal public support. They are not getting it so that is s why I am voting against the bonds like Angelo.

  35. telling the truth again says:

    @Becky Blackwood

    “I have been in construction for nearly 30 years, either in design, construction, code compliance and presently an adjunct professor teaching building construction management for a bachelors program.”

    Are you teaching with a Masters’s degree or a Bachelor’s? You have an interior design license. BFD.
    If you had a PE or RA you may have had the credibility to prevail with the broward school construction battles. It is a Peer To Peer game. Pe to PE. Ra to RA. That is why the issues you raised, correct or not, were dismissed. Had sbbc/facilities NOT HIRED non credentialed and non-licensed help the battles you and your inspectors fought would have been settled asap. but you and staff needed the RA or PE to take on the RAs and PEs. Whetherthe chief bldg official or whoecver.

    So please stop talking out of both sides of your mouth now in lame support for a looser NEEDS ASSESSMENT that is NOT contractually bound. But if you continue to work for the loosers tying to redeem themselves via a PR marketing effort (as Buddy’s post have documented over last months or two), the bond referendum will be handily defeated on Nov. 4.

  36. Charlotte Greenbarg says:

    Please look at the latest audit of Ft. Lauderdale High. Your skin will crawl. And the people responsible for it are still working for the district and the Sup’t. won’t do anything to fix that.

    That project alone should get this district an oversight committee and an I.G. Read it, please. It’s on the district website and I’ve sent it out everywhere.

  37. Becky Blackwood says:

    Telling the Truth Again,

    I am neither an RA or a PE. Let’s see we have had Martin as a Building Official who was an RA; we had Lindner, head of facilities who was a nautical engineer, we had Tom Calhoun, who was head of facilities who was an aeronautical engineer – how did that work for the Facilities Department? Garretson’s experience was in building prisons. I set up the Building Department at the recommendation of the grand jury of 1995. Inspectors were held accountable by signing off their final inspections to insure their accountability. I made certain they went to inspectors training and got their State of Florida Building Inspectors license in 1999 and 2000. I worked to set up our first scheduling computerized program because the District wouldn’t buy one and the only way to track failed inspections was manually. Some of the biggest errors made were by Registered Architectural firms in the past – South Broward, the 24 classroom additions, Riverside Elementary, Fort Lauderdale High School, Cooper City High School. Yes, I have a Bachelors Degree in Design and a Masters Degree in Building Construction from the University of Florida College of Architecture. I have State certified licenses as a Building Inspector, a Building Code Administrator, a Building Contractor and an Interior Design License. I am also a member of the National Council of Interior Design Qualifications which requires an 16 hour exam to receive their certification and membership. I can read a set of plans and I can identify errors. I have testified on behalf of the School District from 1996 to 2010 (even while I was under threat of termination by the School Board) and my testimony, along with my inspectors,returned $3.3 million dollars on legal settlements with registered architects and registered engineers. I was also asked at the same time to review and recommend pursuit of $4 to $5 million dollars in change orders, which the District has received a large portion back. I am unable to comment on the amount because I was terminated in January 2010. I agree with you about the non-credentialed and poorly experienced staff. I inherited some of mine but I made every effort to hold them accountable and train them to be professional inspectors. Unfortunately, during the last layoff, most of them were replaced by many of the project managers who ignored their failed inspections and allowed those RAs and PEs and GCs to continue the project, resulting in many of the deficiencies we have today. I also was adamant about not issuing Temporary Certificates of Occupancies when I was in a position to do so but after I was removed along came 350 TCO’s that to date some still can’t be made into Certificates of Occupancies. By the way, are you an RA or a PE? Holding that license doesn’t make you qualified; it just means you can be held liable for your errors and omissions. To my knowledge, those lawsuits that occurred as a result of the inspectors I supervised returned large financial settlements for the District. None of my inspectors were registered architects or engineers. It’s called check and balance.

    Please don’t shoot the messenger even if you refuse to listen to their message.

    ONCE MORE, I DID NOT SAY I SUPPORTED THE BOND, I SAID THE FIRST STEP IN IDENTIFYING THE DEFICIENCIES WAS BEING PERFORMED IN AN INDUSTRY STANDARD MANNER. I HAVEN’T MADE UP MY MIND YET.

    What do you think the final outcome will be for our public school system if we do nothing to these schools?

    Do you have a child in a sick or poorly constructed building?

    By the way, I also asked Superintendent Runcie to ask the local Inspector General to monitor the construction of the bond program.

  38. tell the truth says:

    @Becky Blackwood
    “What do you think the final outcome will be for our public school system if we do nothing to these schools?”

    Tigers don’t change their stripes. SBBC will never change their ways.
    The line item on bcpa.net tax bill covers “broward county schools”. They are getting an increase from all property taxes on the Nov. bill. They’ll have to manage down at the Katherine Wright building.

    No bond vote from me

  39. Becky Blackwood says:

    To Tell the Truth:

    It’s easy to criticize but I noticed you didn’t answer my question you mentioned above. So what happens if the public school system fails? What is your solution other than not getting involved to fix the system but rather vote against it and complain. Charter Schools companies are hoping the bond fails and the system fails, then they can raise their rates, not provide any benefits, held to less of a standard because then there will be no other competition. After all, there is a lot of money at stake.