Broward School Board to select current or former administrator as interim leader

The next leader for Broward schools will likely be someone with close ties to the district, having served as a current or former administrator.

The School Board will meet Tuesday to vote on a $365,000 separation package for Superintendent Vickie Cartwright, who will end a turbulent 18-month tenure nearly two years before her contract was set to expire.

At the same meeting, the board will consider appointing a current administrator or bringing back a former administrator to be interim superintendent.

School Board members say the candidates under consideration are:

• Ernie Lozano, an executive director who oversees behavioral threat assessments but has recently filled in as Cartwright’s chief of staff.
• Jermaine Fleming, regional superintendent for the north area of the county.
• Earlean Smiley, a retired district administrator and former superintendent for a small school district in South Carolina.

Lozano, 49, has been with the district since 1996, having served as a principal, director of accountability and performance and executive director overseeing behavioral threat assessments.

Cartwright assigned him to an interim position of chief of staff to replace Jeff Moquin, who Cartwright forced out in September.

Lozano often reads written comments from the public and has filled in for Cartwright when she’s been away.

Fleming, 51, is a former music teacher with the Miami-Dade School District who came to Broward schools in 2002.

He has served as an assistant principal, principal, director of accountability and performance and chief strategy and operations officer. He became a regional superintendent for the north area following a Cartwright reorganization in June.

Both Lozano and Fleming were finalists for the district’s principal of the year in 2016.

At the time, Lozano led James Hunt Elementary in Coral Springs, while Fleming was at Nova Middle in Davie.

Smiley, 71, started with the school district in 1974 as a teacher and worked her way up to deputy superintendent.

She left the district in 2010 to take a job with the McCormick County school district in South Carolina, where she stayed for three years. In recent years, she has worked as a charter school consultant.

None of the three could be reached for comment Friday.

The School Board is conducting a national search for a permanent leader and hopes to have someone in place by July. At Tuesday’s meeting, board members plan to decide whether the interim leader can apply for the permanent job.

Board members faced criticism for hiring Cartwright as interim superintendent in 2021 with the provision that she couldn’t apply for the permanent position, only to backtrack three months after she arrived.

[ RELATED: Broward schools superintendent may leave with $365,000 payout ]

Daniel Foganholi, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, is asking the School Board to appoint Smiley to the job. The board has considered her twice before during times of uncertainty over Cartwright’s future, but there hasn’t been enough support to appoint her.

But with Cartwright’s final day set for Tuesday, Foganholi said he wants a strong leader to replace her.

“The board has been talking about becoming a premier A school district since August, along with increasing our enrollment and returning to our glory days,” Foganholi told the Sun Sentinel. “She is an outsider and will provide instant credibility, will stabilize the district, and institute reforms over the next several months to assist the permanent superintendent.”

Three other board members — Lori Alhadeff, Torey Alston and Brenda Fam — have previously expressed interest in hiring Smiley.

[ RELATED: Broward School Board severs ties with Cartwright ]

But the majority of board members last week expressed interest in appointing an interim superintendent from Cartwright’s cabinet, which is a group of about a dozen high-level administrators.

Board member Jeff Holness has made a formal request to hire Lozano Tuesday.

“Mr. Lozano has a proven track record of success with moving student achievement including high-need schools,” Holness wrote, adding that he has “supervised schools in need of improvement. The schools made significant academic progress.”

Several other board members said they’re open to Lozano, Fleming and possibly others.

“In my opinion, an internal candidate is going to be the wise choice,” Allen Zeman said. “Ernie Lozano, Jermaine Fleming and others in the cabinet are all fully qualified to be acting superintendent for a brief time to pave the way for a permanent superintendent to start in July.”

Board member Sarah Leonardi said she found it “kind of unusual” for Foganholi to bring Smiley’s name up again.

“I’m not sure why we’re having this conversation when the majority of the board agreed on the direction,” she said. “For the purposes of continuity, stability and institutional knowledge, it would be healthiest for someone internal, especially since almost everyone on that dais talked about how great our cabinet is.”

Leonardi said she had supported Chief Communications Officer John Sullivan for the job, but he withdrew from consideration after discovering that a new state law bans superintendents from lobbying for six years.

Sullivan, who once served as the district’s chief lobbyist, announced this week he’s resigning from the district and is expected to return to lobbying soon.

Leonardi said she doesn’t have a specific candidate she’s pushing now.

“I’m ready to support whoever in the cabinet is ready and willing to step up,” she said. “It’s important that this name be made swiftly.”