New super issues
Never have so many key leadership positions in Palm Beach County been set to turn over in such a short time. The next turnover begins today.
I wrote recently that the Palm Beach County Commission next month will choose a successor to County Administrator Bob Weisman, who’s had the job since 1991. Trustees at Palm Beach State College are debating a successor to President Dennis Gallon, who’s retiring in June after 18 years. Florida Atlantic University President John Kelly started work just 13 months ago.
The county also will be getting a new school superintendent. Wayne Gent is resigning after three years, and St. Lucie County quickly made him their new schools chief. After going inside to hire Gent and before him Art Johnson—the Boca Raton resident and former principal at Spanish River High School—the school board will hire someone from outside the district.
Most likely, it will be Robert Avossa, superintendent of Fulton County (Ga.) Schools for the last four years. He was the top choice when the school board cut the list of finalists to four. One dropped out.
Among the three whom the board will interview today, Avossa is the only current superintendent. He also is the only one not working in Florida. The other finalists are Desmond Blackburn, chief of school performance and accountability for the Broward County School District, and Jesus Jara, deputy superintendent in Orange County.
Knowledge of Florida’s education system and Florida’s education politics is essential for any superintendent. Avossa, though, worked in Florida—and then North Carolina—before moving to Georgia. And if board members review Avossa’s recent record, they will find that the issues in Georgia are the issues in Florida.
In Palm Beach County, as in so many parts of Florida, students, parents and teachers are complaining about the annual, state-imposed testing gauntlet. At least one school board voted to opt out of state-required tests before rescinding the decision.
In January, Avossa sent a letter to the Georgia Legislature in which he criticized the emphasis on standardized tests. “Teachers are spending more time proving they’re doing their jobs than being allowed to do them, and students are spending more time proving they can pass a standardized test than being given time to truly master the content,” Avossa vented. “I believe students need to be tested and educators need to be held accountable, but our heavy reliance on testing leaves little room for teachers to plan, educate and improve outcomes for students.” A month after Avossa’s letter, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal named Avossa to a committee that is studying education in the state and will issue recommendations.
Like Art Johnson, Avossa believes that one way to help underperforming schools is to give them better teachers. In Florida, that means striking deals with the teachers union to raise pay for those who work in schools where students have less parental support. In Fulton County, according to news reports, Avossa raised money to offer bonuses of $20,000 for teachers who would transfer to schools that had been identified as “failing.”
Last October, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the board unanimously extended Avossa’s contract for a year. It was the second such extension, taking Avossa’s contract through 2017. Under state law, contracts for Georgia school superintendents can’t last more than three years. The board president raved that Avossa “has infused new energy and focus into our district.” The board was “extremely impressed with the results we’re seeing.”
So if there’s a caution about Avossa, it’s why he wants to leave. Avossa makes $275,000 in base salary, but his benefits package pushes his total compensation to almost $345,000. In addition, he gets a $500,000 life insurance policy and a 401(k) contribution equal to 10 percent of his base salary. Palm Beach County wants to raise the superintendent’s pay—Gent made $236,000 in base salary—but does the board want to pay that much, since teachers barely have had raises in the last few years?
Also, Avossa would owe Fulton County $50,000 for breaking his contract. Palm Beach board members must ask who would pay that. If Avossa says he would, the next issue is why he’d be willing to do that. The challenge of moving to a district that has twice as many students? Getting back to Florida? Both? Something else?
The choice matters for the whole county, of course, but it especially matters for Boca Raton. The city uses its schools and their ‘A’ ratings—however controversial those ratings are —to recruit companies. The Legislature allow for-profit charter school companies to cherry-pick students and starves traditional public schools of money for construction and maintenance. The county is depending on the school board to get this choice right.
The disappearing easement
I wrote last week about the controversy over how an easement for the Atlantic Crossing project in Delray Beach disappeared from the second site plan, even though the plat filed with the county shows the easement. It’s called Atlantic Court, and it would provide secondary access to the project from Federal Highway. The main access point will be Northeast Seventh Avenue.
If the easement is gone, the question is what the city got in return for giving it up. After researching this issue, I can’t find evidence that the city gave up the easement after a clear public vote. The developers contend that when the city commission approved a new site plan in January 2014, the city gave up the easement. If so, however, I can’t see that the city got anything for doing so.
Nothing in the material provided for that meeting speaks specifically to the potential loss of the easement. Further complicating matters, Delray Beach had a different city manager and—more important—a different city attorney in January 2014.
The upshot is that the Atlantic Crossing site plan doesn’t match the Atlantic Crossing plat. Problem. The developers seek to fix that at today’s meeting of the Planning and Zoning Board. They want a recommendation to approve the new plat that lacks the easement. The developers claim that keeping the easement would hurt traffic flow, not help it.
Atlantic Court, though, was on the first site plan for a reason. Delray Beach already gave up Seventh Avenue and public alleyways for Atlantic Court. Commissioner Shelly Petrolia argues that, based on her look at the record, the city got Atlantic Court for giving up the alleyways.
The developers have the right to ask for the plat change, but they can’t change the perception that Delray Beach got snookered on Atlantic Court. The developers would help themselves if, one way or another, they change that perception.
P&Z replacement
As the Planning and Zoning Board debates Atlantic Crossing on Monday, the city will interview 11 candidates to succeed Dana Little as director of Planning and Zoning.
Little resigned in February after guiding the new Land Development Regulations for the Central Business District from drafting to city commission approval, first as a Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council staffer and then as a city employee. The job is one of the most important in Delray, since all development projects go through the department. As Mayor Cary Glickstein says, “the ‘here’ is so important to these projects.” He means that what might work well in one place doesn’t work in another. Example: Atlantic Crossing, which critics believe is too big for its two square blocks.
A committee will interview the Planning and Zoning candidates. City Manager Don Cooper will make the final decision.
Boca pension vote notes
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Boca Raton City Council approved police and fire contracts that start the city toward public safety pension reform.
The city did get $93 million in projected fire-police pension contributions over 30 years. One of Boca’s priorities in negotiations was that the city should be contributing no more than 18 percent of fire and police payroll toward pensions. The current level is about 31 percent. According to financial projections, the new contracts won’t get the city to 18 percent until 2017.
New council member Jeremy Rodgers voted against the contracts. In voting for them, Mayor Susan Haynie and council members Mike Mullaugh, Scott Singer and Robert Weinroth praised the contracts as progress. They’re right. But there’s much margin for error in such long-range projections. Though the city and the unions get credit for compromise, don’t expect it to be the last pension compromise Boca Raton needs.
Medicare compromise
Recently, I wrote about a rare example of congressional bipartisanship on a major issue: payment rates for Medicare providers. This is an even bigger issue in South Florida; Medicare is a big part of hospital revenue.
When I wrote, the House had overwhelmingly passed the legislation after John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi—yes, those two—worked out a compromise. The deal came, though, as Congress was leaving for the Easter/Passover recess. The Senate had not acted.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed the legislation, just in time to avoid cuts in the next round of provider payments. The vote was 92-8. One of those voting no was Florida’s Marco Rubio, who must believe that running for president means opposing anything the White House supports.
Inspector General update
On Wednesday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Catherine Brunson rejected a request for rehearing by the cities suing over the Office of Inspector General. Last month, Brunson ruled against their cities in their challenge of the system for financing the office.
Delray Beach has dropped out of the lawsuit. Boca Raton remains a plaintiff. The remaining 13 cities now much decide whether to appeal. If Boca Raton intends to continue opposing something voters supported so strongly five years ago, the council should hold a formal vote and try to explain why the city should stay in the lawsuit. Or the council could hold a formal vote and make the better decision: to withdraw from the lawsuit.
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You can email Randy Schultz at randy@bocamag.com
For more City Watch blogs, click here.About the Author
Randy Schultz was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He has lived in South Florida since then, and in Boca Raton since 1985. Schultz spent nearly 40 years in daily journalism at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, most recently as editorial page editor at the Post. His wife, Shelley, is director of The Learning Network at Pine Crest School. His son, an attorney, and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren also live in Boca Raton. His daughter is a veterinarian who lives in Baltimore.
