FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The head of Broward County Public Schools, the sixth-largest school district in the country, has been arrested on a perjury charge.
According to records, Superintendent Robert Runcie, 59, was booked into the main Broward County jail on Wednesday on a charge of perjury in an official proceeding.
The arresting agency was the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
According to a release from the FDLE, Runcie and Broward County School Board general counsel Barbara Myrick, 72, were arrested Wednesday morning. Myrick is facing a charge of unlawful disclosure of statewide grand jury proceedings.
The FDLE said the arrests are related to Runcie and Myrick's testimony before a grand jury.
The grand jury was impaneled to investigate possible failures following school-related safety laws and mismanaging funds solicited for school safety initiatives.
According to Runcie's indictment, the grand jury was investigating, among other things, "whether refusal or failure to follow the mandates of school-related safety laws, such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act, results and unnecessary and avoidable risk to students across the state" and "whether school officials committed-and continue to commit-fraud and deceit by mismanaging, failing to use, and diverting funds from multimillion dollar bonds specifically solicited for school safety initiatives."
The indictment said Runcie "did make a false statement which Robert W. Runcie did not believe to be true" while testifying under oath in an official proceeding related to the investigation.
READ THE INDICTMENT:
Runcie has been with the school district since 2011 and came under criticism for security failures during the 2018 deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Dr. Rosalind Osgood, the chair of the Broward County School Board, released the following statement to WPTV about Runcie's arrest:
"The School Board of Broward County, Florida (SBBC) will provide transparency, accountability and integrity as we continue to focus on delivering the highest quality educational experience for our students, teachers and staff. As legal processes continue, Broward County Public Schools will operate as normal under the District’s leadership team."
