Name: Adam Cervera

Campaign website: AdamCervera.com

Birthdate: July 22, 1983

On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 the highest), rate the job performance of Superintendent Howard Hepburn, emphasizing his strengths and weaknesses.
Two (2). Admittedly, Superintendent Hepburn deserves credit for helping keep the district focused on academic achievement, including Broward’s third consecutive “A” grade, and for confronting the difficult realities of declining enrollment. However, the District’s repeated failures involving referendum funds, procurement, leases, staffing decisions, and internal controls have damaged public trust. His administration has failed to maintain fiscal discipline, operational execution, transparency, and accountability. Academic progress is important, but taxpayers and employees also deserve competent management and clear consequences when serious mistakes occur.

The Broward School District received an “A” grade for the third straight year for student academic performance. Who deserves the most credit for this?
The greatest credit belongs to Broward’s students, teachers, principals, assistant principals, school-based employees, and families. The Board and superintendent set direction and provide resources, but academic success is earned every day in classrooms and schools. Our educators and school-based teams produced these results while navigating staffing pressures, budget uncertainty, and significant public scrutiny, and they deserve the strongest recognition.

Voters will decide whether to extend a school property tax increase. If it passes, the School Board will allocate 90 percent of the money for raises for teachers and school-based staff. Do you agree or disagree with this decision and why.
I agree. Referendum dollars should primarily benefit the people who work most closely with students. Dedicating 90 percent to compensation for teachers and school-based staff is the right priority and will help Broward recruit and retain excellent educators. The remaining funds for safety, security, and mental-health services are also essential. This time, and as long as I am on the Board, the allocation will be protected by clear eligibility rules, transparent public reporting, independent audits, and firm enforcement so that the money is spent exactly as voters were promised.

Will you vote for or against the tax extension and why?
I will vote for the Referendum. Broward’s teachers and school-based employees need meaningful compensation, and students need safe schools and strong mental-health support. I will not allow past mismanagement to become an excuse to underpay the employees who serve children every day. My support also comes with a demand for strict accountability: publicly available spending reports, independent audits, narrow eligibility standards, and consequences for any misuse or diversion of referendum funds.

A series of fiscal missteps in the past year has placed the School Board and the administration on the defensive. How well has the district responded to these controversies?
The District has taken some corrective action, but its response has too often been reactive and driven by public pressure. Freezing improper administrator supplements, commissioning reviews, and changing procedures were necessary first steps, not a complete solution. The public still deserves a clear accounting of how each failure occurred, who approved it, what controls failed, and what has changed. Broward must strengthen procurement and contract review, improve real-time Board oversight, publish easy-to-understand financial dashboards, and impose meaningful accountability when public funds are mishandled.

One such controversy involved using past referendum money to pay large bonuses to highly-paid administrators. Should those who received bonuses have been required to refund the money? Why or why not?
Yes, where repayment is legally available and consistent. Voters approved those funds to support teachers and employees serving students; not to provide large supplements to highly paid District level administrators. The District should have pursued reimbursement, offsets, or other lawful recovery measures on an individualized basis. Employees who reasonably relied on an official payroll decision should be treated fairly, but the governing principle must remain clear: money promised to teachers and student-facing staff must not be diverted to purposes voters did not authorize.

To reduce a financial deficit, the Board approved a reorganization plan that critics say is unfair because it eliminates front-line positions while leaving bureaucratic jobs largely untouched. Do you agree or disagree with this criticism and why?
I agree with the criticism. Declining enrollment requires Broward to right-size its operations, but the first and deepest cuts should not fall on students, teachers, counselors, social workers, and school-based support employees. I voted against the reorganization because it eliminated too many front-line and student-support positions while leaving too much administrative overhead intact. Before removing positions that directly affect children, the district should eliminate duplicative central-office functions, vacant executive layers, unnecessary consulting and licensing expenses, and other non-classroom spending.

The School Board has voted to close six underenrolled schools to save money. Do you think the district should close more schools or not, and why?
The District should not automatically close more schools. Enrollment decline and excess capacity are real, so no responsible Board member can take every option off the table. However, closure must be a last resort supported by transparent, school-specific evidence. Before any additional closure, the district should disclose projected savings, transportation impacts, receiving-school capacity, effects on exceptional-student and specialty programs, community consequences, and a credible reuse plan. Broward should first pursue magnets, innovative programs, partnerships, boundary changes, and other strategies that can attract families and better use existing campuses.

List in reverse chronological order each college or university attended, with years of attendance.
Florida International University College of Law — Juris Doctor, 2009

University of Central Florida — Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, 2005

List in reverse chronological order your work history for the past 15 years.
January 2026–present: Partner, Association Law Group, P.L.; business litigation and real estate law

May 2025–present: Member, School Board of Broward County, District 6

June 2009–December 2025: Shareholder, Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.; business litigation and community-association law

Why should voters elect you instead of your opponent(s)?
Voters should elect me because I have already demonstrated that I will ask hard questions, challenge bureaucracy, protect classroom priorities, and insist on accountability. I am a Broward public-school graduate, a father of three, an attorney, and a sitting Board member with a record voters can evaluate. I opposed a reorganization that cut too deeply into student-facing services, fought to keep referendum money with teachers and school-based staff, demanded outside scrutiny of financial failures, and pushed to reduce administrative overhead before harming classrooms. I will continue putting students, educators, families, and taxpayers ahead of politics and institutional convenience.

What in your life experience best qualifies you to serve as a school board member?
My life experience directly connects to this work. I grew up in Broward County, attended Broward public schools, and graduated from J.P. Taravella High School. My wife and I are now raising three children in this community. As an attorney, I have spent my career analyzing complex facts, budgets, contracts, and legal obligations, resolving difficult disputes, and holding institutions to written rules. At FIU Law, I represented special-needs students and at-risk youth through the Juvenile Justice and Education Advocacy Clinics, and I later served with Read to a Child. Those experiences, combined with my perspective as a parent and my record on the Board, prepared me to protect students, support teachers, and demand responsible stewardship of public resources.

Have you ever been a party to a lawsuit, including bankruptcy or foreclosure? If so, provide details of the case and disposition.
Yes. I am the plaintiff in Adam Cervera v. Michael Worley and Making Democracy Work, Broward County Circuit Court Case No. CACE26010587, filed June 29, 2026. The complaint alleges defamation arising from false campaign statements made by Jessie Bastos’ campaign manager Michael Worley; the case is pending.

Have you ever been charged or convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, including an adjudication of guilt withheld? 
No.