Frank Till Out At Boys & Girls Club
Former Broward School Superintendent Frank Till is out as chief executive of the Boys & Girls Club.
Till had the job since January 2007.
Boys & Girls Club President Tom McDonald denied rumors that Till was forced out of his job.
“He quit on his own. He has left to persue with true passion education, said McDonald, the owner of an engineering company.
He was fired by a 5 to 4 vote of the Broward School Board in October 2006 after seven years of running the system.
The club runs about a dozen facilities in Broward, serving 12,000 children with educational, sports and recreational programs. Its budget is about $10 million annually, much of it mined from the pockets of Broward’s wealthiest individuals like entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga, car dealer Rick Case and land baron Ron Bergeron.
“He is looking to return to the education either in the non-profit or for profit world, McDonald said.
The club, like many charities, is struggling in the tough economic times and Till’s salary was said to be more than $200,000 annually.
“Its hard to raise money when even those with deep pockets have lost one-third of their net worth,” said a source.
Till recently was part of a group that tried to build several charter schools in Broward, but were rejected by the School Board.
February 13th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Wrong dates, Buddy. Till was fired in October of 2006, not 2005. I was there.
My sources have told me that Till had almost no support from that board either. Some were apparently ready to walk out when Till was hired.
Back to education? You know what I know. Maybe more.
Maybe Till should be made to explain to the public why he was warning at least one school board employee on the take (via e-mail, no less) that the board was on to him rather than firing him.
I suspect that Till would be better off moving back to California. Nobody needs him here. Probably not even his business buddies who pushed him onto the Boys & Girls Club in the first place.
FROM BUDDY: You are absolutely right about the dates. Thank you for pointing it out. I have changed it.
February 13th, 2009 at 11:58 am
P.S. he wasn’t really liked in California, that’s why he left and moved South, seriously
February 13th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
The big boys finally woke up to who Till was. It is about time.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
The money he was being paid by the Boys & Girls club was too much for a charity. Dr. Till knows education and will be a benefit to some charter school someplace.
February 14th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Wow that is a huge salary for a charity…. He needs to go back to California and TRY to find a job. Maybe the Governor Arnie can help him.
February 14th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I really wonder how much more of him that his business buddies will be able to stand?
His “Frank Till Must Win at Any Cost” fan club surely has had it by now. They faced me down in 2004, (remember, Budddy?) unable to rattle me no matter how hard they tried.
They tried again and lost in October of 2006, and I suspect their last hurrah was Till’s unexpected stint as B&G Club CEO.
I suspect the only holdover is Abe Fischler who gave Till a “glowing” review in his recent attempt to push a new Charter School through the School Board.
But then again Fischler and Till have a history of no-bid contracts from the School Board. And Fischler has a habit of getting his CELT buddies (he’s a board member) to hand out free junkets to CELT headquarters along with whale watching outings.
If the “TMWAAC” club is still in business, maybe one of them should hire Till to run their businesses as efficiently as he managed the school system.
Don’t worry, they won’t. I challenged the group with that very same question in 2004. Not one would answer. Most wouldn’t even look at me.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Marty — I’m just curious, you post a comment on just about every article? Dont you have something better to do or are you trying to get your name back in the limelight for some political run?
February 14th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I never thought I would do this, but…
I volunteered during the tenures of a number of superintendents. Frank Till, like all of them, had his strengths and weaknesses. I always appreciated his solid support of PTA. He is villified far more than he deserves. And, you can probably say that about most superintendents.
February 15th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Kathy Rayson is right. Being a superintendent is an impossible job. You have to work for nine politicians who vary in intelligence from idiot to normal. I wouldn’t place any of them above normal. Then you face almost insurmountable problems like lack of money, racial tension, a staff that is not up to the job, etc.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Why would any one want to be a Superintendent, it’s NOT job for anyone only educators, (has anyone of you noticed) and they’re all out for the money. They never put a person from the Business world in there, do they?
Just send Till back from where he came and let’s stop all this nonsense. He’s a moron and thinks he knows a lot. NOT…..
February 15th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
No, John, I’m retired and I don’t have to run the 9 to 5 rat race any more.
But I am still heavily involved in county and Sunrise politics and intend to remain so for years to come.
Since I no longer need to run for office, I can tell it like it is whether or not you or Kathy Rayson like it. (I still love you, Kathy, but don’t tell John.)
Till was wonderful to the PTA world because that’s where he got his major public support despite his incompetence.
Till permitted too many managers
to slide by doing little or nothing, too many employees to have dubious relationships with vendors and hired department heads that had no business being employed, let alone department heads.
Projects were always delivered late and over budget. Especially projects like Ft.Lauderdale High which was 8 years overdue and $10 million over budget when I left.
Apple Computer offered to help SBBC to iron out its payroll software for (get this) NOTHING.
I was in the room when Apple’s CTO made the offer.
Till went out and handed a no bid contract to his buddies at CELT for almost $1 million to do the same job.
Why we had a relationship with CELT I will never understand other than one of its board members is none other than Abe Fischler. CELT did a less than stellar job on the initial technology project in 2000 (you remember 4 computers per classroom) and yet here we were giving them more.
Till permitted CIO Vijay Sonty to appoint himself selection committee chair to review a multimillion dollar RFP for copiers and digital documentation. Vijay then proceeded to eliminate all competition except his buddy in New York.
I stopped it cold. Till refused to fire Sonty. He then permitted him to take trips on vendors dime, issue no bid contracts and even warned Sonty via e-mail when board members like me found out.
After all of that, the attempted bid rigging, Till refused to reissue the RFP for YEARS costing millions in extra taxpayer dollars.
That RFP went back on the agenda the night we fired Till.
It’s all documented, especially the e-mail trail Till was dumb enough to leave.
Till belongs NOWHERE NEAR PUBLIC MONEY.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Marty,
CELT is back in the picture, Dr. Mack has been very critical of Notter and now Till is back on the free agency market. Would that imply that there is a movement afoot to oust Notter and bring Till back in?
If you and others knew about Sonty’s bid rigging and Till’s complicity why did the board wait until an RFP went back on the agenda to fire him?
Is it really “dumb” to have an email trail? The way you put it sounds like everybody has something to hide and some are just dumber than others by having email evidence.
We have gone back and forth, you and me. We argued over your old friend who used to be Zorro and then you even photo-shopped a pic to convince the world that you were always Zorro. Why did you work so hard to protect her? Does she have emails hidden too?
If you were out here talking for the greater good, I would appreciate that. But you are just spouting off more vindictive nonsense. I too know that there are way too many unqualified cronies and family members in positions of spending authority and decision making. Many of them were put into place during the Till administration and many by Notter’s folks. Either way, they are not based on qualifications and squander big bucks.
Why would the district continue to turn their head to so many fake PhDs? You know of many of them, including the audit chair. Why don’t you blow the whistle on that activity?
Look at the current administration, with the exception of Herbst is anyone truly qualified? How did Ms. Strong get her position? How did the current COO get the position? How can the new board member say there are no gangs in the district?
This is all the same old action, inaction and spin that you were party to. Now that you are retired why don’t you blow the whistle on some of those tired practices, as many of the current administrators belong NOWHERE NEAR PUBLIC MONEY.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Welcome aboard, Scorekeeper.
I’ll say this one last time… I was always zorro and snickered with amusement every time you insisted that I was “you know who.”
Have you finally taken your blinders off? Please, for the sake of sanity and accomplishment, take them off and stomp them on the ground.
You must remember that I was the only board member who had the ability to read and UNDERSTAND the RFP responses in that case.
The best way I can put it is that Vijay’s friend (who by the way was not on the bid contact list) knew the words so to speak, but couldn’t make a proper sentence out of them.
To anybody who had no grasp of the technologies the responses looked kosher, but in reality they were total BS.
You ask if it is really “dumb” to have an e-mail trail. Let me ask you this: If you are involved in running interference for someone who works for you, would YOU leave evidence in e-mail?
Assume for the question you’re Till.
You know or even suspect Sonty is doing what he did. Would YOU be dumb enough to warn Sonty via e-mail that the board members were on to him?
Would YOU be dumb enough to advise Sonty via e-mail that the word is out that he’s taken a family trip to Disney World and people in the ‘tech world’ know about it?
Would YOU advise Sonty via e-mail to stop getting himself appointed to boards of companies doing business with Broward Schools?
Somehow, I don’t think so.
But Till left an e-mail trail long enough to paper Broward County from end to end.
And talk about dumb… It was Sonty himself that alerted me to Till’s despicable performance by demanding public records of his conversations with Till. He’s the idiot that opened that particular door.
I really don’t know whose PhD is fake and whose is genuine. (PhD to me means piled high and deep.) In any event, I have constantly complained since almost day one about the quality of the PhD department heads that were appointed by Till.
Have you never read my story about Dr. Evertt Abney? Nice guy, but incompetent as the day was long. CIO long before Vijay Sonty. That alone soured me on Till’s competence. And that was my second week on the board.
I was never silent on the board, just nobody wanted to hear negative stuff while under Till’s influence. I even published a newsletter outlining Till’s deceit with the $3/4 Billion attempt at raising property taxes (which, I might add, was defeated by my vote.)
I was the first to cry foul on the Southwest Ranches land deal, especially exposing Garretson’s belated disclosure about not being able to test the land all the while he and Till were recommending purchase.
I was the first to expose Till’s constant twisting of facts and figures in order to find the numbers that the Board would vote affirmative on approving “LLL.”
I can only point out what I’ve seen, not what is currently. I have never pulled punches other than leaving out names here until this Till article was posted by Buddy.
And if you remember the Sun Sentinel blogs in June of 2007 when Vijay Sonty got the axe I made no bones about using his name and getting him fired. It was then that he went to the board office and demanded public records. He only dug himself deeper.
You kept chiding me to do more as you did in your message here. I kept telling you that I was no longer part of the system.
I can no longer bear witness to the shenanigans that plague the system. I only know that they exist.
I did my part by getting rid of Frank Till.
I had heard as a new board member that people were afraid to do things because someone was looking over their shoulder.
That’s the bane of a bureaucrat. The best excuse for doing nothing. And if they had simply bothered to do their jobs properly in the first place, regardless of who was looking, things would have gotten done and the “watchers” would have stopped looking.
February 16th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Oh, on the family trip to Disney World that the tech community knewe about?
Paid for by IBM who stood to gain a $30 million no bid contract.
December 22nd, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Marty – How about info on Neil Sterling I’m sure you have quite a bit!!! Care to divulge????