Revealed! Source For School Story
BY BUDDY NEVINS
During decades in the news business I made it a fixed policy not to reveal my sources.
People in politics love to whisper the scoop, but want to be kept anonymous. That has always been fine with me.
I’m going to break my long held ethical boundaries now.
I’m going to name my source for the Nov. 13 post entitled “School Board Needs A Watchdog, Not A Cheerleader.” That piece is linked here.
I’m doing this because I hear that the gossipy Mean Girls supporting School Board member Abby Freedman for vice chair are spreading fabrications about my source.
They claim my source was member Nora Rupert. Her motive was to use Browardbeat.com in an attempt to win election as vice chair instead of Freedman.
Yes, this is what these women who govern a billion dollar government worry about!
Nothing could be further from the truth about my source.
In actuality, I can’t remember when I last spoke to Nora Rupert. She has never been a key School Board source of mine.
This isn’t the first time these members — Freedman and others. – have acted like spoiled high school prima donnas like the film “Mean Girls.” (I already know which one is Lindsay Lohan.)
Well, Mean Girls, my source was simple. It was Facebook…as I wrote in the original post.
I routinely glance at both Sharon Aron Baron’s Facebook posts and the posts on Parkland United for Neighborhood Schools.
My Facebook Source: Not hard to find
Freedman and some others on the School Board apparently believe the school system is above any criticism.
Oh, but I beg to differ. There is sooo much to criticize.
So many blunders. So much that is covered up. So many lies told the public.
For a journalist, the Broward school system is like shooting fish in a barrel.
I promise the Mean Girls this:
No matter who is named vice chair, I will continue writing what the public deserves to know. After all, it is the public’s school system and the public’s money.
The problem is that truth is elastic under this School Superintendent, Robert Runcie.
Runcie’s Sun-Sentinel Rant
The truth is not elastic, I believe, for Howard Saltz.
I don’t know Saltz, the Sun-Sentinel editor who was appointed after I left.
But I know journalists. Saltz is a journalist.
He got his first byline at 12. He has been a newspaper editor in Pennsylvania, California, Ohio and New Jersey. He’s got a lifetime in journalism.
So I have to presume that Saltz would not print anything knowingly false in the Sun-Sentinel.
Howard Saltz
On October 23, 2015, reporter Brittany Shammas wrote:
“A newly released audit of the bond program overseen by the Broward County School District’s incoming chief of facilities cites management issues as partly responsible for the $211 million budget shortfall in the $1.9 billion program.”
The audit also said inflation could not be blamed for the bulk of the cost overruns.
The piece was neither corrected or withdrawn. That’s because it was true.
Brittany Shammas
Yet, Broward School Superintendent Robert Runcie last week again assured the public in an op-ed column in the Sun-Sentinel that the “report is not an audit of the Houston district’s Facilities Department, nor is it an audit of its overall bond program. This audit was limited in scope and specifically reviewed potential cost increases for future construction projects, caused by inflation and market conditions.”
It was an audit of the bond program. It was a program run by his new choice to run Broward’s bond spending, Leo Bobadilla. The audit cited management issues and the management was Bobadilla.
Period. Full stop.
How did the op-ed piece come about? I’m no longer inside, so I can’t say for sure.
Yet several sources tell me that Runcie has whined to Sun-Sentinel so many times about their schools coverage that editors agreed to give him space to air to his delusions about the Houston audit.
There is nothing wrong with this.
The paper’s editorial section should be a cross section of views. I often read fantasies from writers – they are usually politicians or bureaucrats like Runcie – on the editorial page.
Okay. These varied opinions reflect thinking in some segment of society.
But they are opinions, not facts. Readers should remember that these op-ed pieces at times don’t reflect the truth.
November 16th, 2015 at 5:46 pm
If Runcie is at the point where he has to write an editorial to explain himself and his actions, we have bigger problems.
November 16th, 2015 at 8:54 pm
Well, luckily for me I have a giant monitor to read …
Queue the blowhard Castillo in
three…
two…
one…
November 16th, 2015 at 11:05 pm
Are we all still pretending that the Emperor is wearing clothes? Runcie should NEVER have become Superintendent of Broward County Schools. Never. It’s a big job for anyone. But, Runcie? Please.
November 17th, 2015 at 8:02 am
Good morning Chaz, I hope you’re doing well this fine day.
Tootles.
Angelo
November 17th, 2015 at 10:43 am
Except for old William Randolph Hearst getting us into the Spanish-American War, the New York Post getting some votes for Ed Koch n cartoonist Nash undercutting William Marcy Tweeds gravitas newspapers havent done spit one way or another in American history. Remember 90 per cent of US newspapers opposed FDR during ALL FOUR OF HIS LANDSLIDE ELECTIONs! And does anyone remember who the Orlando or Miami or Palm Beach or Ft Lauderdale papers in Meeks-Rubio-Crist or Scott-Crist? News reporters.Nevins Wyman Wallman Barszewski Man and Sweeney inform with information you sometimes clip editorials go straight to the circular file.
November 17th, 2015 at 11:04 am
What Broward is suffering has always been the MO of the political cabal there. Look at the history of the School Board, the many, ignored (except for creating the Consultants Review Committee, which the corrupt Board dissolved)Grand Jury reports, the lackluster performance of the SA, etc. etc.
What are the constants? The lobbyists who run the campaigns of the majority, no member of the Broward delegation demanding redress and the culture of oppression and arrogance that exists in the majority of the administrative staff.
Runcie is operating in the Chicago Way, which fits right in. Until you get an SA and legislative delegation that demand justice and accountability, blatant lies will continue to be told, with the liars never called out by the establishment.
And this includes the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board, which should have printed the truth about the “non-audit” right after Runcie’s delusional op-ed.