BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended four Broward County School Board members Friday following recommendations of the Twentieth Statewide Grand Jury, which issued an Aug. 19 report that found more mishaps related to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting on Feb. 14, 2018.

According to the report, the grand jury found that the board members mismanaged the SMART Program, a multimillion-dollar bond specifically solicited for school safety and renovation initiatives.

The report stated that a safety-related alarm that could have possibly saved lives at the school “was and is such a low priority that it remains uninstalled at multiple schools.”

The report continued, saying “students continue to be educated in unsafe, aging, decrepit, moldy buildings that were supposed to have been renovated years ago.”

According to DeSantis' office, the jury recommended suspending board chair Laurie Levinson, vice char Patricia Good, and members Donna Korn and Ann Murray.

Grand Jury's recommendations

When choosing the four members for suspension over others on the board, Grand Jury members place a considerable amount of emphasis on their refusal to castigate the performance of former Superintendent Robert Runcie.

In its report, the jury attempts to tie that alleged lack of interest directly to the Broward Workshop, which it describes as "a politically active club of business owners who often donate generously to the campaigns of local school board candidates."

The organization "has made it crystal clear that on of its '2021 Top Goals' is to '(s)upport continuity of leadership at Broward County Public Schools,' which is plans to accomplish specifically by 'engag(ing) with School Board Members' and '(c)ollaborat(ing) with community partners to enhance the School District's reputation.'"

"According to a slide presentation the Workshop gave to its membership on April 7th, 2021, the sole measure of the Workshop's success endeavor would specifically be whether 'Bob Runcie remains Superintendent,'" the report said.

According to the Grand Jury, the Broward Workshop was overt in who it would, and wouldn't support on the School Board.

"They are brazen about supporting Board members who align their own votes and statements with Workshop priorities, just as they are very clear about not supporting those who do not," the report said, noting specifically that the group "had not supported Lori Alhadeff, and would 'absolutely not' support Nora Rupert," board members who had voted to remove Runcie from his position and were not affected by DeSantis' suspension announcement Friday. 

Calling Good, Korn Murry, Levinson and former board member Rosalind Osgood a "subset of Runcie-fiendly Board members," the Grand Jury faulted them for not being more critical of the superintendent.

The jury found that the board was aware of serious problems with the SMART Program — the blame for which was primarily placed on Runcie — and did not take action, according to the report. 

The Grand Jury praised reviews of Runcie by some board members, while lambasting those of the five "Runcie-friendly" members.

"Evaluations by Board members Nora Rupert, Robin Bartleman and Lori Alhadeff are all highly detailed and often critical of the Superintendent," the Grand Jury wrote in its report. "On the other hand, evaluations authored by the subset of Runcie-friendly Board members — Patricia Good, Ann Murray, Donna Korn, Rosalind Osgood and Laurie Rich-Levinson — are almost a funhouse mirror version of the more critical evaluations put forth by their minority peers."

While members of the Grand Jury called Runcie's performance as superintendent into question, they pointed out that "these five Board Members routinely gave Superintendent Runcie aggregate scores which rated him as 'Highly Effective" overall.

"In fact, not one of them ever scored him below "Effective" overall during this time period," the report said. "Furthermore, many of their comments do hot seem to bear any relationship to what was actually taking place in the time period for which the comment was made."

The Grand Jury then posited an explanation for their actions, alleging the following:

"Why should Ann Murray waste her own time reading (an) analysis of the District's roofing subcontracting procedure if the contents of that report have no chance of influencing her vote? Why should Patricia Good waste time coming up with original comments in her evaluations from year to year if she knows that the Workshop's opinion of the Superintendent's performance, not her comments, are the metric by which Superintendent Runcie will be released or retained? Why should Donna Korn exercise her substantial experience in commercial real estate to analyze the District's SMART Bond foibles when that analysis may put her at odds with influential Workshop members who regularly interface with her and contribute to her campaign?

"We could go on, but suffice it to say that this relationship seems to be fueling much of the disagreement and intransigence between the District and the Board. It is clear to this Grand Jury that Robert Runcie, for whatever reason, has the ear of influential power brokers who are more than happy to exercise that power to influence Board members to retain him."

Runcie ultimately stepped down as superintendent.

DeSantis' suspension decision

DeSantis said Friday that he made the decision to suspend the four board members based on the report's recommendations.

“It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance,” DeSantis said. “The findings of the Statewide Grand Jury affirm the work of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Safety Commission. We are grateful to the members of the jury who have dedicated countless hours to this mission and we hope this suspension brings the Parkland community another step towards justice. This action is in the best interest of the residents and students of Broward County and all citizens of Florida.” 

DeSantis has appointed four people to replace the suspended members:

• Torey Alston, former Commissioner of the Broward County Board of County Commissioners and President of Indelible Solutions;

• Manual “Nandy” A. Serrano, member of the Florida Sports Foundation Board of Directors, and CEO and Founder of Clubhouse Private Wealth;

• Ryan Reiter, a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran and Director of Government Relations for Kaufman Lynn Construction; and

• Kevin Tynan, Attorney with Richardson and Tynan, who previously served on the Broward County School Board and South Broward Hospital District.

The Twentieth Statewide Grand Jury was impaneled by the Florida Supreme Court in February 2019 to examine four issues, including whether public entities and school officials committed fraud and deceit by mismanaging funds devoted to school safety. 

Spectrum News digital producer Kirstin Thomas contributed to this story.