Category: Education

Peter Licata plans to start negotiating his exit as Broward schools superintendent Friday and could leave with a payout of about $192,000. He could also leave with a smaller amount or stay on as an employee until the end of the year, depending on what he and the School Board agree to. Licata, who has only worked for the district for nine months, announced at an April 16 meeting he planned to retire Dec. 31 due to a health issue, which he declined to discuss publicly. The board agreed at the same meeting to replace Licata, 59, with Howard Hepburn, 45, who has been deputy superintendent for the...

Cypress Bay High School and adjacent Falcon Cove Middle School in Weston will be closed Thursday due to a water main break, which has left the buildings without water, School District spokesperson John Sullivan said Wednesday night. The city’s Public Works Department is repairing the break and classes are expected to resume Friday, Cypress Bay High Principal Kassandra Fried said in a message to parents Wednesday night. The school will provide parents updates when available, the principal’s message said. The schools were not damaged, Sullivan said. School District officials said no other schools...

A Broward schools volunteer won’t face criminal charges after being arrested and accused of battery on a law enforcement officer, the Broward State Attorney’s Office has determined. The decision to clear Debbie Espinoza came three days after the school district released a consultant’s report that concluded her arrest was avoidable and that school police failed to de-escalate tensions at a heated Oct. 17 School Board meeting. Espinoza spent 27 hours in the Broward County Jail after being arrested by John Mastrianni, 63, a detective with the school district’s Special Investigative Unit. In addition...

The Promise program, an initiative that was once heralded for keeping kids out of jail but got tarnished as a symbol of leniency in the wake of the Parkland tragedy, is ending after a decade in Broward schools. The School Board voted last week to approve the updated student Code of Conduct, which eliminates referrals to the Promise program as an action that can avoid a student getting suspended or arrested for non-violent misdemeanor offenses, such as vandalism, petty theft and marijuana possession. But while the name Promise will no longer be associated with the school district, the intervention...

A resolution to honor LGBTQ History Month created division and strife in two South Florida counties, but in Palm Beach County, it sailed through with little controversy. The School Board voted 5-0 with no discussion Wednesday evening to recognize October as LGBTQ History Month. The vote followed a half hour of public comments, where almost all speakers voiced support for it. Several speakers told personal stories about their own journey as an LGBTQ person or loving someone who is gay or transgender. “Acknowledging the existence of queer people through history, we are proving the fact that Palm...

After more than a decade of serving as Nova Southeastern University’s president and CEO, Dr. George Hanbury will step down in January 2025, when Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Harry Moon will take over. NSU’s Board of Trustees finalized and approved the succession plan at its Thursday meeting. Board members unanimously voted for Moon to become the seventh president and CEO, and the change will take effect Jan. 1, 2025, the university said in a news release. Before Hanbury became president in 2010 and CEO in 2011, he served as the university’s executive vice president...

An effort by the Broward School Board to honor its diverse communities over the next year turned into more of a feud than a celebration Tuesday. In past years, resolutions recognizing certain events or groups have passed with little notice. But this year, resolutions to support the LGBTQ community and the instruction of African American history fueled the same angry culture war debates that have become increasingly common statewide. By the time the 3½-hour discussion was over, the left-leaning majority on the School Board prevailed in passing 98 resolutions, including three in support of the...