Broward School District’s Shot at Federal Funds Disappears

January 20, 2010

For a few minutes Tuesday, it looked like Broward School Board members could change their minds about sitting out the Race to the Top contest for millions of federal dollars.

The Florida Department of Education briefly gave Broward an 11th-hour chance over the weekend to reconsider not signing on to the state’s application for the competitive grant money.

But by the time the issue caused a tizzy at a board workshop meeting Tuesday, it was too late.

The state realized Tuesday morning that, if Broward reversed its position, the education department would not have enough time to update Florida’s application and turn it in to the federal government by the Tuesday afternoon deadline.

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The state’s short-lived offer led board members to cry foul over the rules Florida set for taking part in the race.

“Who’s running the show up there?” Board member Maureen Dinnen said. “This is crazy.”

Last week, the Broward board voted 5-4 against Superintendent Jim Notter’s recommendation to participate in Race to the Top. The state had asked superintendents, school boards and teachers unions to agree in writing that if Florida is awarded money in April, districts and unions would carry out reforms like paying teachers based on their students’ performance.

Most districts, including Miami-Dade, signed off.

FLORIDA MONEY

Florida applied for $1.1 billion from the $4.35 billion reform initiative, though no state is guaranteed any funding. If Florida receives $700 million, Miami-Dade would be eligible for some $65 million over four years. Broward could have received $34 million.

The Broward Teachers Union, like the United Teachers of Dade, said it would not sign the agreement. Districts could send in agreements without union support, hoping unions would sign on later, after the federal funds were awarded.

Yet most Broward board members said they had too many questions on requirements the state could impose on the district — including a thorny plan to evaluate teachers based on their students’ scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Members who backed joining the state’s application said the district would have three months to negotiate the details of the reforms with the teachers union.

If the two sides couldn’t reach a deal by August, the district wouldn’t get the money.

The state had set a deadline of last Tuesday for districts to join the state’s application. Fifty-nine of Florida’s 67 county school districts did.

But then Seminole County in Central Florida reversed its decision and signed on Friday — after the state’s Jan. 12 deadline had passed.

That prompted state officials on Saturday to allow other districts that had said no to reconsider their decisions.

For Broward, a reversal would have involved board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb or Notter signing the agreement in defiance of the board’s vote — something both said they were unwilling to do — and scheduling a re-vote.

OTHER DEALS

What irked board members most on Tuesday was learning that Seminole (and, earlier, Duval County) had tweaked their agreements to include notes on contentious issues.

The state had said districts could not change the substance of the agreements. Notter called the Seminole and Duval notes “substantive.” Tom Butler, a spokesman for the education department, called them “clarifications.”

“Had we seen that language, it’s very possible that [our] vote would have been different,” said board member Robin Bartleman, who opposed the agreement.

AMENDMENT

Before its vote last week, the board had unanimously approved an amendment sanctioned by the education department saying the district would not be bound to the proposed reforms if it did not reach a deal with the teachers union.

Members had asked about changing other language to make the agreement more palatable.

Board member Phyllis Hope, who supported joining Race to the Top, suggested that Broward look into suing the state for not giving it the same opportunity to change its agreement.

“I think if there’s going to be flexibility, that it needs to be across the board,” Hope said .

Bartleman said Broward should send the U.S. Department of Education, which is picking Race to the Top winners, a letter explaining its concerns.

“They shouldn’t grant any money to Florida unless they treat all their districts fairly,” she said.

That idea was of little solace to board members who had said the district should sign on the state’s application.

“We ain’t sitting at the table, folks,” Bob Parks said. “We can write all the letters we want, but . . . we’re not included.”