EBR Schools superintendent takes questions from Florida school board

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (BRPROUD) – The School Board of Broward County, Florida held a special school board meeting to choose their next superintendent of schools.

There are three candidates left for the position and one of them is East Baton Rouge Parish School System Superintendent Dr. Sito Narcisse. Narcisse applied for the superintendent of schools position in Broward County last month and was subsequently chosen as a semifinalist for the position.

The agenda for the special school board meeting can be found here.

Narcisse started speaking in front of the board a little before 8:40 a.m. He began by saying, “I have family here, I come here a whole lot.” After giving an opening statement, Narcisse took questions from the board. The current East Baton Rouge Parish School System superintendent spoke about safety and security at schools.

Narcisse highlighted more than once that he is a sitting superintendent. He spoke about programs and innovations including the Pathways to a Bright Future initiative.

Narcisse was asked how he feels about having an inspector general. He said he has no issue having an inspector general in the system.

The current East Baton Rouge Parish School System superintendent talked about raising salaries and providing bonuses for teachers. Narcisse was questioned about bullying and he said there are different types of bullying, on social media and in person. Narcisse suggested that first, you need to figure out what type of bullying is going on and then come up with a strategy to address it. From there, consider going to external partners to help solve the problem and then work with families.

Narcisse talked about improving the performance of students by having target goals. Narcisse said you need to focus on the teachers, students and the content they learn.

The current East Baton Rouge Parish School System superintendent was asked about how he would deal with D and F schools. Narcisse said, “In Baton Rouge, where I am currently the superintendent, we had schools that are underperforming that in the most poorest community, poorest neighborhood, where we’ve had tremendous increases.” Narcisse then delved into how he would deal with this in Broward County.