Ex-Broward superintendent may get $138,000 and non-disparagement agreement

The proposed agreement also includes a provision that neither Peter Licata nor Broward School District leadership can disparage the other for a year.

Former Superintendent Peter Licata would continue to work for Broward Schools as an employee until July 1 and another nine weeks as consultant under a tentative $138,000 separation package he negotiated Tuesday.

The proposed agreement also includes a provision that neither Licata nor district leadership can disparage the other for a year. A non-disparagement clause in previous Superintendent Vickie Cartwright’s contract has proved challenging for the district, as she has filed complaints with the district alleging it has been violated multiple times.

The School Board is scheduled to vote on the agreement at a meeting at 4 p.m. May 14 at Plantation High.

Licata, who just started in July, announced April 16 he was stepping down on Dec. 31 due to health reasons. The School Board voted to terminate his contract immediately, replace him with Howard Hepburn, who had been deputy superintendent for teaching and learning, and negotiate separation details with Licata.

School Board Chairwoman Lori Alhadeff and General Counsel Marylin Batista held the negotiations virtually Tuesday with Licata and his lawyer, Glen Torcivia.

A major sticking point was whether Licata’s separation should be considered a retirement or a termination without cause, the latter of which provides more lucrative benefits, including a required 60 days’ notice and 20 weeks of severance pay.

Batista said Licata appeared ready to step down April 16, so his exit should be treated as a retirement. Torcivia argued the opposite.

“His retirement date was Dec. 31. The board took action,” Torcivia said during negotiations. “I wasn’t at that meeting. I never heard him say, ‘I want to resign. I want to leave now.’ It was the board that said, ‘I want to hire someone else.'”

At the April 16 meeting, which is available online, Licata encouraged the School Board to immediately replace him with Hepburn to ensure “the smoothest transition” for the district.

“This allows us to potentially lock in an incredible talent, as well as make sure we do have some stability as we move forward,” Licata told the board that day, adding that he wouldn’t predict whether he would even be well enough to work until Dec. 31.

School Board members have publicly voiced concern about giving 20 weeks of severance to Licata, who made $350,000 a year, since he’d worked for the district less than a year and his exit was voluntary.

So in lieu of severance, Torcivia first offered that Licata be given 60 days’ notice at full pay and benefits, and then allow him to do 14 weeks of consulting at $6,731 per week, the same pay as being superintendent but without any benefits.

Batista initially offered 30 days’ notice but then agreed to keep him as an employee until July 1, saying the benefits department told her that’s when he’d be fully vested within the Florida Retirement System for 30 years of service. Licata started as a teacher in Palm Beach County in 1994.

Licata said during negotiations that retirement milestone was wrong but refused to provide the correct date, saying it was immaterial to the discussions.

However, Licata ultimately agreed to the July 1 end date as an employee, nine weeks of consulting, $3,000 for lawyer fees and a one-year non-disparagement clause. The total package is $137,615, not including benefits.

The non-disparagement clause, lasting a year, would apply if Licata were to make any disparaging comments about the superintendent or School Board, or if the School Board were to make any such comments about Licata.

“I can’t imagine anything negative. Everything I’ve heard is positive, but you never know,” Torcivia said during negotiations.

The proposed language comes three weeks after former Superintendent Cartwright alleged violations in a non-disparagement clause in her February 2023 separation agreement, putting the district in potential legal jeopardy.

The non-disparagement agreement involving Cartwright has no expiration date, district spokesman John Sullivan told the Sun Sentinel in an email from Feb. 16, 2023.

I heard back from @Johnjsully on who non-disparagement clause for frmr Supt. Cartwright’s separation agreement applies to. Looks like School Board members & top administrators but not other employees. As is common w/ @browardschools inquiries, many questions aren’t answered. https://t.co/qEeGGnzRjV pic.twitter.com/KbJ9KEbgv0

— Scott Travis (@smtravis) February 16, 2023

Cartwright sent a cease-and-desist email April 16 to Batista and Alhadeff, alleging Board member Torey Alston violated the agreement, including in an April 13 post on the social media site X where he commented on a Sun Sentinel opinion column that was critical of him and another board member.

“Nice political ‘hit job.’ Blame everyone else for high millage rates, dropping general fund reserves, Supt w/ no exp (VC) that destroyed the district, daily board interference with staff and hiding a $80M liability, board with no fiscal restraint,” Alston posted on the social media site X. “Who did this? (The People Know).”

Nice political “hit job”. Blame everyone else for high millage rates, dropping general fund reserves, Supt w/ no exp (VC) that destroyed the district, daily board interference with staff and hiding a $80M liability, board with no fiscal restraint. Who did this? (The People Know)

— Torey Alston (@ToreyAlston) April 13, 2024

“I am requesting that Mr. Alston cease making defamatory comments about me. Though he only uses my initials, a reasonable person would be able to determine that he is talking about me,” Cartwright wrote to Batista and Alhadeff, adding that violations by board members are “clearly now a pattern of ongoing behavior.”

Batista sent an email marked “confidential” to board members April 19 saying “no employee of the District, including any board members, should make any false, defamatory, or disparaging comments about or in reference to Dr. Cartwright.”

“It is imperative that all employees abide by the terms of the Agreement in order to protect the District from civil liability and/or allegations of breach of the Agreement,” Batista wrote in the email, which the Sun Sentinel obtained through a public records request.

Alston, reached Tuesday, denied violating the agreement.

“As I have said publicly, I respect the mutually separated leader as a person,” he said. “The board went in a different direction.”

He said Cartwright had contacted him in a call that “truly caught me off guard” in the weeks after the Feb. 7, 2023, separation agreement was approved. He sent a letter to Batista on Feb. 21, 2023, documenting his concerns. He wrote to Batista that Cartwright had called him “very cryptically on my personal cell,” in which he said she mentioned “please tell them to leave me alone,” to which Alston replied he didn’t know what she was referring to.

Alston told the Sun Sentinel, “I wish her well and we need to move on.”

I know what chaos & disruption looks like (& I know who it’s not) Picking the right Supt matters. Removing rotten are hard w/ wrong choices and wasting. Wonder who will be rather than realizing the decades of bad culture, back door deals and mismgmt. @browardschools

— Torey Alston (@ToreyAlston) May 7, 2024

At the end of Licata’s separation negotiations Tuesday, Alston posted a critical comment on X.

“I know what chaos & disruption looks like (& I know who it’s not) Picking the right Supt matters,” he wrote in a post sprinkled with emojis. “Removing rotten (eggs) are hard w/ wrong choices and wasting (money).”