FORT LAUDERDALE – With Broward teachers receiving a paltry 1.33% raise last year, some are wondering why the district’s administrators recently spent a lavish weekend away at a Naples resort.
At a Broward School Board meeting about the budget, a question you’d expect was asked: “Where does the money go?”
“There needs to be accountability for everything they’re willing to spend money on,” said Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco.
Talk of the budget was bogged down by what some perceive as excessive spending after about 180 administrators, including principals and assistants, attended a three-day retreat in late July.
The trip to the luxurious Naples Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort cost taxpayers an estimated $100,000.
Broward parent and volunteer Dr. Nathalie Lynch-Walsh was not happy about it.
“When it starts with a golf tournament, there’s swag bags, there’s dominoes, there’s a day at the pool, there’s a glow party and in the midst of it what appeared to be 2.5-3 hours of professional development,” she said.
“They want to throw a retreat and have a pool party and a room with a bar, and vent, that’s fine,” said Fusco. “Let the organization take care of it.”
Lisa Maxwell, president of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, the group who says it picked up the tab for all but the hotel rooms, went after Fusco.
“Ms. Fusco is well aware the dollars earmarked for professional development can only be used for that purpose and no other. They can’t be spent on raises. Perhaps she needs some assistance in understanding the budget,” she said.
That elicited this response from Fusco: “It’s certainly not a professional development weekend. It is what it is, a principal and assistant principals retreat, which is fine, with their own organization covering every single expense.”
“To do it on taxpayer funds, when you’re asking taxpayers to pay more money when we’re on the eve of a recession and gas prices are through the roof,” said Lynch-Walsh. “It’s like a perfect storm of all the wrong time to be asking, to be doing this.”
Broward County Public Schools chief communications officer released a statement, saying, in part:
“It’s standard practice in many school districts to cover the cost of professional development for their administrators. The total investment for the district for this professional development opportunity is about $100,000.”