After two years as schools superintendent in East Baton Rouge Parish, Sito Narcisse has submitted an application to become the schools leader in Broward County, Florida, the sixth largest school district in the country.
The Broward County school system, which is in the greater Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, publicly , one of five new applications submitted by a Tuesday deadline. They join 14 other qualified applicants who applied previously.
Earlier this month, that county’s school board extended the application deadline to the prominent post.
The nine-member Broward board is set to meet Monday to settle on semifinalists for the vacant top job there. The board plans to reconvene May 30 to pick finalists and . The person selected would start right away, in time for the start of the 2023-24 school year.
In response to a request for comment, Narcisse shared an email he sent Thursday to Baton Rouge school board members informing them that he had applied for the Fort Lauderdale position. In the email, which he also shared Friday afternoon with district faculty and staff, Narcisse starts by detailing what he sees as a series of key accomplishments during his time as superintendent in Baton Rouge.
But then he says a search firm — McPherson & Jacobson — suggested he apply for the vacant Broward post, that he has agreed to do so and that he is sharing this information with board members because it is "the right and respectful course of action."
"In the spirit of full transparency, I am making it known that I have agreed to have my name considered as a candidate for that position," Narcisse said. "Given that my EBRPSS contract is ending in one year and taking into account my lifelong mission to drive demonstrative impact for as many students and families as possible, this opportunity feels particularly important and worthy of consideration."
Narcisse took over the East Baton Rouge Parish school system in January 2021, his first time as a superintendent, and his contract does not expire until June 2024.
Narcisse has been an ambitious but controversial leader. He has presided over a sizable expansion and revamping of the Central Office while pursuing a variety of far-reaching initiatives.
His moves have sparked periodic outcries, starting with an abandoned early proposal to start the 2021-22 school year two weeks early and widespread criticism of a "Day of Hope" field trip this past September.
Narcisse’s base annual salary is $255,000.
A native of Long Island, Narcisse in 2002 spent three years as a French teacher at a high school in suburban Nashville, Tenn., but by 2007 he was an assistant principal in Pittsburgh. He has since held a series of administrative jobs, none lasting more than three years, in Boston, Maryland, Nashville and Washington, D.C. His most prominent position was serving as chief of schools in Nashville from 2016 to 2019.
After arriving in Baton Rouge, he instituted a districtwide literacy program, placing literacy as well as math coaches at many schools. He has greatly expanded dual enrollment, starting with this year’s ninth-grade class, with the goal of students graduating high school with enough credits to earn an associate’s degree or to be close to that threshold. He has also expanded early childhood education.
His initiatives have yet to bear much academic fruit. East Baton Rouge Parish’s overall academic performance declined in 2021-22, Narcisse’s first full year as superintendent, compared to the year he arrived. Most Louisiana school districts, by contrast, showed improvement by that measure.
Academic results for the current school year won’t be released publicly until later this year.
The first year of his tenure, to be sure, was hampered by COVID, with student and teacher absences spiking and classroom instruction in general greatly disrupted.
Calling himself a “change agent,†Narcisse has sparked controversy throughout his tenure, with vocal detractors and periodic protests over his decisions. But he also had steady support throughout from many local business leaders and prominent African-American political leaders in town.
In January, a new School Board took office, six out of nine of them new to the job. Mike Gaudet, who has called Narcisse “a visionary,†asked the mostly new board to vote to start contract renewal negotiations with Narcisse. Gaudet ended up pulling the item in deference to fellow board members who weren’t ready to take such a step.
If Narcisse leaves, he wouldn't be the first to quit the East Baton Rouge Parish school system after a relatively short tenure. His immediate predecessor, Leslie Brown, was superintendent for just two months in 2020 before she abruptly resigned, pointing to unidentified health issues. Incidentally, Brown spent almost her entire county working for the Broward County school system.
Prior to Brown, the five previous East Baton Rouge Parish superinendents all lasted between three and five years on the job.
Narcisse has connections to south Florida.
In August 2021, Albert Carvalho, the superintendent of schools in Miami, came to Baton Rouge to speak at a gathering of school principals. That November, Baton Rouge school board members visited Miami to see that city’s arts conservatory school as well as other specialized schools.
In his Broward County superintendent application, Narcisse includes a letter of recommendation from Carvalho, who in early 2022 departed Miami after 14 years to become school superintendent in Los Angeles. Narcisse also has letters of recommendation from former Dallas, Texas, superintendent Michael Hinojosa and Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools.
Editors note: This article has been updated to correct the district to which Narcisse applied.
