School Superintendent Apologizes
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Broward School Superintendent Robert Runcie today released the following apology to the public after almost two weeks of problems with the school buses.
Is it enough?
Is it too late?
You decide.
Here it is (click on it to enlarge):
September 4th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Too little, too late.
September 4th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
the usual hype, spin and bs. save it. damage is done. 2 weeks? he probably doesn’t want to loose his job, but he will never have confidence and support with this performance if the board keeps him
September 4th, 2012 at 8:00 pm
what a goof ball
September 4th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Thank you Mr. Runcie !!!
September 4th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
First Runcie sparked chaos among the bookkeepers. Now the transportation department is in chaos. Anyone see a pattern here?
September 4th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Is there any reason why he could not give a time certain when this will be resolved as would be required of any employee?
September 5th, 2012 at 4:27 am
Nothing New from Mr. Runcie.Those are the same words he used when he first took office,he is just buying some more time.Meanwhile “The Terminator” aka. Chester Tindall might use his bad knee coditions to leave The Transportation Dept for good!
September 5th, 2012 at 5:08 am
Yes, too late. He boasts of accomplishments, but he’s made an attempt to balance the budget on the backs of high school teachers forced to take a pay cut. Morale is horrible. How is it Miami-Dade’s superintendent could do so without cutting HS teacher pay?
September 5th, 2012 at 8:28 am
Boring comments, except #4. No one addresses the union corruption or the pandering by the school board to the union for votes, all this with faux concern for the children and no concern for the taxpayers as seen in cost of transporting the children [twice the cost of Dade county.
Runcie may have problems, but the transportation costs have been here long before Runcie.
So Runcie goes and then what? Broward county gets to keep the corrupt system in the transportation department? With the school board continuing to look away.
It appears the Broward County School Board supports the use of
‘The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”.
September 5th, 2012 at 8:39 am
Buddy, you and others are being unreasonably unfair to Runcie. He says it in his letter. The transportation division spends $40 million more than it takes in. Is anybody paying attention to the significance of that statement?
That is a HUGE amount of overspending. If you spend it on bus service, you cannot spend it on teaching in classrooms. Do these parents want their kids to learn more or pay more than they need to for school bus? Don’t tell me you must do both with a limited dollar. That is not an available option. He must do both within the existing dollar and that is not an easy task.
We should not be taking $40 million out of classroom to just to keep the buses running. That’s crazy and Runcie’s lonely but necessary assignment is to figure out how while many defend their own turf, their own special interests, the status quo. If Buddy Nevins can’t see that then he has gone prematurely blind.
Change is messy and worse so in a political climate. There will be good days and bad but if this county goes bonkers every time there is a glitch on the long road to change then THERE will be NO change.
It’s not like any of you suckers have any ability to take this corrupt, rotten to the core school district from where it was to someplace respectable. We will never get the job done double guessing the surgeon who we hired to cure us of disease.
Get behind this man and help him. There is no risk in this. He cannot possibly produce a worse school system than we had before. That outcome just isn’t possible, it can only get better and so far it is getting better.
If he ever shows signs of selling out on values, I will be the first to turn on him. Until then, I intend to trust and support him hoping he can turn this thing around for us. You all can be harsh if you want but I think he deserves some slack to get that job done.
September 5th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Also I consider it a badge of courage that Runcie chose to take this on. He could have easily left it alone knowing there was a mine field between him and making a better transportation department.
Knowing that Ann Murry used to run that division before she retired and ran for the school board. She would look pretty bad if he succeeded. Truth be told, nothing about her serving on the school board makes any sense. I have not heard one decent report on her since she got elected.
People like Murry are the ones that left the school district in a deficit in transportation. So to have her one of Runcie’s bosses when he’s trying to fix that and so many other problems seems crazy to me.
That school board adds no value and should be completely abolished.
September 5th, 2012 at 9:07 am
I don’t see an apology to the bus drivers who he accused of deliberately endangering children’s lives.
September 5th, 2012 at 11:29 am
New problem, blame the prior administration… Works in the White House, why not Broward Schools????
September 5th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Possibly there was no apology to bus drivers because the suggestion was true. Once that suggestion surfaced suddenly the situation began improving so the jury is out on that charge.
September 5th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
The “school system we had before” actually did student transportation correctly. Now it doesn’t even do that. Runcie never took the Hippocratic oath (“First, do no harm”).
September 5th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2012/09/bus_union_members_protest_at_s.html
Embattled School Transportation Director Chester Tindall will be gone for at least six to eight weeks for medical leave and it’s unclear whether he will stay in the job after that.
Tindall spoke briefly to the School Board to apologize for botched bus service that has plagued the district since the school year started Aug. 20. […]
FROM BUDDY: My version of the story is on this site.
September 6th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Wow! All those accomplishments….. And can’t get the kids there?