After years of complaints about waste, corruption and mismanagement, the Broward School District will receive more oversight, after voters approved the addition of an inspector general Tuesday night.
At 8:30 pm., with full early results and most Election Day in, about 60% of voters said yes to give the county’s Office of Inspector General the same level of oversight over the school district as it has over Broward County government and local cities. A simple majority was needed for passage.
School district officials say the inspector general’s office will start working with the district in early 2025 and will cost about $1.2 million a year.
The inspector general will “have strong powers, like being able to request documents and conduct audits, which would help keep our district running smoothly as a government agency,” School Board Chairwoman Lori Alhadeff said during a news conference in September.
The oversight will be on top of other agencies that sometimes investigate the district, including the State Attorney’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General, the state Commission on Ethics and the district’s internal audit department.
Some residents told the South Florida Sun Sentinel more oversight is needed, given the district’s long history of issues identified in multiple grand jury reports.
“All too often when the District ‘investigates’ itself, the outcome is preordained. ‘We have investigated the incident and found no wrongdoing, the file is closed,’” said Steve Moyer, a Cooper City resident and advocate for special needs students.
The county inspector general was first approved through a voter-approved amendment to the Broward County charter in 2010. But the school district declined to be part of it.
But in 2022, the state released a grand jury report that identified gross mismanagement of an $800 million bond program, prompting the removal of four board members.
The idea to bring back the inspector general started during a three-month period in 2022 when Republican appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis controlled the School Board, but it maintained unanimous support even after Democrats reclaimed the majority.
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