School Superintendent Still Has Critics
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The Sun-Sentinel continued its gushing over Superintendent Robert Runcie last week in a truncated story on his evaluations.
The story was accurate…to a point. It missed that two members of the School Board fried Runcie.
So as a public service, below are the evaluations of the two critics of Runcie –members Heather Brinkworth and Nora Rupert.
Perhaps most distressing, and left out of the Sun-Sentinel piece, were the critiques from members that academic achievement has declined under him.
“How did we as a District in three years got from an A rated, Highly Performing and multiple Board Finalist, to a C, now B District with only 59 percent of all students reading on a grade level?” asked Rupert.
The 2013/14 graduation rate has been released since Mr. Runcie’s last evaluation; it is 74.2%, which is a decrease from 75.3% in 2012/13,” a comment made powerful since it came from member Laurie Rich Levinson, who generally is a Runcie supporter. Even she conceded everything was not Champagne and strawberries.
Despite the passage of the bond issue, there continue to be significant problems in the Broward public schools. That’s why even in upscale Parkland, parents are lining up to send their children to charter schools.
Brinkworth and Rupert are a valuable resource to taxpayers. We need them watching how the $800 million bond money is spent. Because none of the other members have demonstrated they are anything more than cheerleaders.
Nora Rupert Heather Brinkworth
March 9th, 2015 at 1:42 pm
Buddy,
What statistics do you have to back up your claim about Parkland patents sending their kids to private schools?
Parkland parents love the public schools. You have no idea what you are talking about.
FROM BUDDY:
Some Parkland parents, no doubt, love the public schools. However:
SUN-SENTINEL, August, 2014:
A charter school company with over 100 schools in six states has expressed interest in opening a school in Parkland.
Academica, which has a reputation for high end, upscale schools, wants to buy ten acres of land and build a K-8 school in the wedge, the area that was annexed into the city from Palm Beach County. The proposed facility would also have the ability to add up to 12th grade. The application will be considered by the city’s Education Advisory Board as well as its Planning and Zoning Board before coming up before the City Commission for final approval.
Mayor Michael Udine, who spoke about the proposal at the city’s back to school breakfast, later gave more details on Facebook. “This school would accommodate approximately 1500 students. I am informally being told, the school, would be very high end. “Parkland Academy” has been thrown around as a name.”
Do you really think a company with over 100 schools wouldn’t investigate the potential of their investment before applying for a new charter? This very experienced company believes that the Parkland parents of at least 1,500 students will use its charter.
And by the way, charter schools are not “private schools.” They are privately-run public schools. If you add the students living in Parkland who go to private school, you would have even more parents who reject the traditional public system.
March 9th, 2015 at 2:21 pm
The sentinel seems to be working WITH runcie rather than reporting on anything! Amazing….student achievement declines….graduation rates are (I believe) inflated by people like Mr Williams…who create grades for classes no one ever took! The system is ripe with fraud. It is disgusting and disgraceful…but so many in Broward could care less
March 9th, 2015 at 2:46 pm
Buddy – Agree with the article as to Runcie 100%. Disagree as to the Parkland piece though.
I’d wager you can’t find 1,000 Parkland parents who WANT to send their kids to a Charter. You may find that many that WOULD send them to a Charter versus being sent to a school outside of the area. But WANTING to send them to Charter versus NEEDING to send to a Charter to keep them in the area are two very different things.
As always, great stuff.
March 9th, 2015 at 5:39 pm
Mistyped when I wrote private schools before. And yes, I think this Charter School company sees a rich-ass city and thinks they will be able to draw kids. News: they won’t. Call Robert Mayersohn or Michael Udine and ask them if Parkland Parents want to send their kids to charter schools.
FROM BUDDY:
I did ask Mayor Udine. Here is what he told me:
“It’s going to be build,” predicted Udine. “It will get the support of parents. This will be very successful because it will be done right. It will not be a storefront charter school. I’ve been told this will have all the bells and whistles.”
– See more at: http://www.browardbeat.com/huge-upscale-charter-planned-for-parkland/#sthash.rEewCun1.dpuf
March 9th, 2015 at 7:24 pm
I hope the Mayor be not teaching grammar at the charter skool going to be build
March 9th, 2015 at 7:33 pm
runcie is garbage. caught a huge break with bond passage…got a year’s grace…
March 9th, 2015 at 7:51 pm
Buddy, the comment you mention above was originally given a while ago. Now that we have more classrooms coming from the various EAB dollars, I am not sure if something the size of a 2000 student charter would be acceptable to the City or Community. The issue in the future is going to be one of math. The City and our residents always would prefer a Broward County Public School. However, if they are not going to build another public school, other options are going to have to be looked at.
March 9th, 2015 at 8:15 pm
I am not a fan of Runcie, however there are too many variables in educating students to blame only him for the graduation statistics.
The state of Florida refuses to admit that all students cannot fit in the same box. Since the days of Jeb Bush, all students are expected to meet the same academic standards. Look around you. Are all the people you see as smart as you? I thought not. It works that way with young people.
Each one has different abilities and interests. Most students can function academically at average or above average. The ones who cannot have become collateral damage of the education system. It is sink or swim, no in between. No alternate program for those who can work better with their hands than they can do Algebra, geometry, and foreign language. Society loses, the students lose, and their families lose. Some can open up their own businesses, legal and illegal. Some can work with their families. Too many turn to crime.
The entire education system in Florida is in turmoil. Until real change happens, no one person can be blamed. The bureaucrats must let educators educate.
March 9th, 2015 at 9:14 pm
He sandbagged the Harbordale Elementary parents – that’s for sure. Just after the bond issue goes through, he pays back the developers by sneaking a school boundary change past the Harbordale parents. Apparently the new residential units going up downtown were zoned for F school Walker Elementary. Instead of fixing this school, which has 350 empty seats, he is changing the boundary to Harbordale. The VSY parents were in the know way before Harbordale, and now they are scrambling to try to undo a done deal. Runcie is no friend to the students or parents.
March 9th, 2015 at 9:25 pm
With all respect, Mayor Udine, the success or failure of the new charter school will hinge upon the courses and extra curricular opportunities offered. If they offer better education options for our children then they will be successful. Music and arts have been shortchanged by the public system. If they offer good programs in those areas, many parents will take a look. Real advanced language arts including courses not offered in the public schools, such as Chinese and Arabic, would also interest many parents. Good parents have no allegiance to any school if there is a better school nearby.
March 10th, 2015 at 12:57 am
BOOM BUDDY. Told you Parkland parents love their traditional public schools*.
* Statement does not include our own elected School Board member who sends one of her kids to a private school.
March 10th, 2015 at 9:48 am
Great post Mayor Udine. The situation a year ago when a 2,000 student charter was proposed is very different than now.
With the classrooms being built in Parkland (with City, developer-funds — all coming by way of the purchase prices that buyers are paying for new construction in Parkland), there are going to be approximately 500-600 new seats available at the City elementary schools. Between that and the hundreds of seats still available in Middle and High School, the “need” for a charter to avoid having kids taken out of the community to attend a public school just doesn’t exist in the same way it did back then.
Effective city management by our commission in getting these additional funds (since the BCSB cannot build on the land they were given despite a clear need in the geographic area) pretty much avoided a horrible result.
Glad to be a resident.
March 11th, 2015 at 2:23 pm
Love the Dade County superintendent. I wish he would replace Runcie with him!
He is a proactive Superintendent and a nononsense kind of guy