secretary resigned<\/a> on Monday, district officials said. Leonardi said she reimbursed the district for the cost of the ticket.<\/p>\nDistrict officials have said the cost of the actual advertisement was paid for not by the district but by six board members whose pictures appeared in the ad: They are Democrats Leonardi, Jeff Holness, Debbi Hixon, Maura McCarthy Bulman and Nora Rupert and Republican Adam Cervera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe teach our students that mistakes can happen, but what defines us is how we respond. In this case, my focus has been on transparency, accountability, and immediate corrective action,\u201d Leonardi\u00a0said. \u201cThat remains my focus. I will continue to lead with integrity. I will continue to ensure that facts guide how I serve this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The School Board approved most of Leonardi\u2019s proposed corrective actions but voted against two of them.<\/p>\n
One would have hired an outside law firm to investigate what happened. Several board members said that was unnecessary because\u00a0the state is already investigating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is stupid,\u201d Board member Adam Cervera said at the meeting. \u201cThe OIG at the Department of Education is coming down here and will do its thing with a lot more resources than any private law firm that we would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to come in and do. And in addition, whatever the state says, that\u2019s going to be the law of the land and if the state conflicts with the law firm, the state\u2019s going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board members also rejected a proposal to move the oversight of School Board executive secretaries from School Board members to the superintendent\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think trying to change who the executive secretaries report to doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d Board member Debbi Hixon said. \u201cIt would give them two bosses. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most board members said they believe the logo and procurement card use were honest mistakes, and they praised Leonardi\u2019s efforts to rectify them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fixed as soon as you realized it, and I appreciate you continuing to be transparent with issues as you find them and serving us in the county with integrity,\u201d Hixon said.<\/p>\n
Cervera, a DeSantis appointee who frequently brings up financial oversight and accountability issues, was more critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was certainly disappointed to learn that this is now another potential issue where the public is going to look at all of us as a whole, as a district, and scratch their heads and say, \u2018You know what? Can I trust these guys?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Broward School Board has approved new safeguards after facing criticism from state Republican leaders for using a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[113,249,251,250,266,115,109,32797],"class_list":["post-252392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-education","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-social","tag-south-florida-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}