Dr. Vickie Cartwright has been selected as Broward County Public Schools’ full-time superintendent, making history as the first woman to lead the nation’s sixth-largest school district.
Last week, the school board voted 8-1 to elevate the interim superintendent, who has led the district since last summer. She officially replaces Jamaica-born Robert Runcie, who stepped down last spring after a perjury charge.
The board chose Cartwright over Michael Gaal, a former Air Force flight instructor. He also served as deputy chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, chief of staff for the Oakland Unified School District, and in leadership positions for the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan.
While school board members said they were impressed with Gaal, Cartwright had the advantage of already leading the district for the last few months.
Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said she fully supports Dr. Cartwright as leader of the district given the work that she has done so far.
“In the six months that she has served as interim superintendent, she has proven to be an intelligent and excellent leader with an ability to listen to and work with all constituencies,” Fusco said in a statement. “She quickly gained a keen understanding of the district’s challenges and opportunities. I look forward to continuing the positive and fruitful relationship we have created and to Dr. Cartwright’s long tenure as the leader of Broward County Public Schools.”
Board member Dr. Rosalind Osgood also pointed out that Cartwright has proved that she is not afraid to stand up to state leaders when advocating for children in the district.
“The superintendent should be someone that is not going to back down to the political pressure right now where school districts and school board members are being targeted and attacked,” Dr. Osgood said.
Since Cartwright took over from Runcie last summer, the school district leaders had been in a back-and-forth court battle over COVID-19 measures in schools. Both Dr. Cartwright and the school board had implemented a mask mandate for students against the orders of Governor Ron DeSantis. Defying the governor’s orders resulted in board members’ salaries being cut by the state.
With Dr. Cartwright now the permanent head of the district, her battle with the state will continue – not over COVID-19 protocols, but laws that will affect the classroom. Some of which include the anti-critical race theory legislation and the “don’t say gay” bill that will bar school districts from encouraging classroom discussions about sexual orientation or gender. The Superintendent said these bills being pushed by the Governor are dangerous.
“To go in and try to whitewash history or to say things didn’t happen when they actually happened or to say that we’re now going to create an environment where our students continue to feel excluded instead of included is dangerous. That is not the America that I know,” she said at a recent press conference.
She also said one of her immediate priorities would be to fill some key roles, including the chief academic officer, which she was not allowed to do as interim superintendent.
