Last week, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia posted on social media that his office planned to start looking into government misspending in school districts, continuing an effort started last year with county governments.<\/p>\n
School boards should not be given a \u201cfree pass\u201d for their excessive and wasteful spending of your tax dollars.<\/p>\n
They should be held accountable also.<\/p>\n
Taxpayer dollars should be invested in kids and good teachers, not administrative bloat. <\/p>\n
Which school board should we FAFO\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/U1KL34GX70<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Blaise Ingoglia (@GovGoneWild) January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere is waste, fraud and abuse within this district, and I am confident that it will be found,\u201d Cervera said at his news conference. He told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he had spoken with Ingoglia but didn\u2019t have a timeframe for when a state team could visit Broward. Ingoglia\u2019s office could not be reached on Tuesday.<\/p>\n School Board Chairwoman Sarah Leonardi and district officials held their news conference at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, before a series of workshops that started at 9 a.m. Cervera\u2019s started a few hours later.<\/p>\n During the first news conference, Leonardi was surrounded by Superintendent Howard Hepburn as well as every other School Board member except Cervera and Nora Rupert, who arrived late to Tuesday\u2019s workshops. Rupert told the Sun Sentinel Tuesday afternoon that she had car trouble or she would have attended Leonardi\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome the governor and his team, as well as his CFO to come help us find further efficiency, because we, like the governor, are committed to spending taxpayer dollars responsibly,\u201d Leonardi said Tuesday morning. \u201cWe welcome the state\u2019s expertise to strengthen accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n While both supported a DOGE effort, the two news conferences presented vastly different depictions of the district. Leonardi said there had been serious problems in the past, but the district is now A-rated based on academics and has a School Board that takes swift action whenever problems arise.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not talking about the Broward County Public Schools of the past. We are talking about the new Broward schools, the district that is stronger, more accountable, and more transparent than ever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In 2022, a statewide grand jury found mismanagement of a voter-approved $800 million bond referendum for school construction. As a result, Gov. Ron DeSantis removed and replaced four School Board members. None of those appointees are still on the School Board.<\/p>\n DeSantis appointed Cervera to the School Board in April after Board member Brenda Fam, who was elected in 2022, moved out of the area.<\/p>\n Cervera emphasized there has been a series of recent failures. They include:<\/p>\n A $2.6 million office lease<\/a> that School Board members viewed as wasteful and unneeded; In all three cases, the School Board took action to try to rectify the issues quickly after they became public. The board canceled<\/a> the questionable office lease in November, rejected all bids<\/a> for the construction program manager in December and stopped giving<\/a> referendum dollars to high-paid employees in January. It also ordered an audit to find out how the bonus issue happened.<\/p>\n Cervera issued a public statement on Dec. 30 calling for Chief Operating Officer Wanda Paul to resign based on concerns about the office lease and the construction manager solicitation. She submitted her resignation<\/a> later the same day.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not small. These are not bookkeeping errors. These are absolute failures of district leadership that directly harm our students, our teachers, and our community,\u201d Cervera said Tuesday. \u201cThese recent missteps are not something that happened years ago, or with the old board. This is happening right now in front of our very eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n Leonardi said she sees Cervera\u2019s call for DOGE as similar to what she had already called for in media interviews on Monday and the press conference on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad he\u2019s joining me and my colleagues in that call to help find efficiencies in our system,\u201d Leonardi said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"Broward](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tfl-l-broward-school-board-0113-07.jpg\")
Broward County School Board Chair Sarah Leonardi, center, and members of the School Board hold a news conference at the Kathleen C. Wright Administration Center in Fort Lauderdale, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n
\nAn audit that found the district botched an effort to find a manager<\/a> for its construction program;
\nBonuses of up to $14,000 that were paid to administrators making more than $200,000 a year out of referendum dollars<\/a> intended to benefit teachers and low-paid staff.<\/p>\n