WILTON MANORS, FLA. (WSVN) - Outgoing Superintendent Robert Runcie visited Broward County Public School students as they began summer school on Monday.
Monday marks the six-week program “Get Back, Get Ready and Reconnect” for students getting ready for the upcoming school year.
Pre-K to 12th graders will get the opportunity to refresh what they learned last school year and prepare for the next. More than 45,000 students have signed up for summer school.
Runcie visited Hollywood Hills High School and Bair Middle School in Sunrise and ended at Wilton Manors Elementary School.
It’s likely the last time he will visit classrooms in Broward County as his time as superintendent winds down.
“We’ve been really touched by emails I received and things from parents and teachers, but especially students,” Runcie said. “The impact on their lives, and the things we take for granted, what you can change in a young person’s life with just one conversation as you meet them in the classroom. And again, I’ve never taken those opportunities for granted, and I’m grateful to this community for giving me this opportunity to serve here for almost a decade.”
Runcie resigned back in April after being accused of perjury, and mounting criticism over the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.
However, on Monday, he wanted to focus on the positives.
“I’m enormously proud of the work that’s been accomplished in this district over the past decade,” Runcie said. “Right now, I’m just focusing on helping the school district get through the summer and to the start of the school year, and at some point in the next few weeks, the school board will select an interim, and I hope to be able to spend some period of time working with that individual.”
Runcie also took time to commend teachers, administrators, bus drivers and custodians for all the success they’ve had as a district.
“We have been recognized not just nationally but internationally for the work that we’ve been doing,” he said, “and I’m proud of the legacy that we’ve been able to accomplish here.”
It’s a legacy he leaves behind after an unprecedented pandemic changed everything.
“We’re absolutely trending in the right direction, and it would be my estimation that we will have more flexible mask-wearing policies come the fall,” Runcie said.
The 2021-22 school year will be a school year Runcie will no longer be a part of, so what are his plans?
“I don’t have any immediate plans. I will and continue to have conversations with many organizations and foundations throughout the country,” he said. “There are school districts that continue to reach out, and I think I’ll take a break from that, but I think whatever work I do, I certainly want to be able to impact our public education system in this country.”
Runcie will still have to deal with the perjury charge. However, he is confident that he will indeed beat that, but in the next few weeks, he wants to make sure the next interim superintendent is ready for the upcoming school year.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.