School Board member Adam Cervera is calling for an immediate leadership shake-up at Broward County Public Schools, arguing a cascade of operational failures has eroded public trust and exposed the District to financial and legal risk.

In a statement released this week, Cervera — a lawyer and appointed, first-year Board member — called for the immediate resignation of Broward Schools Chief Operations Officer Wanda Paul.

Under her watch, he said, the District has suffered systemic breakdowns in oversight and transparency, including a since-terminated $2.6 million office lease that drew a lawsuit from the District’s former landlord and what he called a “deeply flawed” construction procurement process.

Those “are not isolated mistakes,” Cervera said. “They expose the district to serious financial, legal, and reputational risk.”

Cervera, a lawyer, said accountability must extend beyond process fixes and after-the-fact explanations.

“These were operational failures,” he said, adding that leadership must face consequences when safeguards are ignored and the School Board is kept in the dark. “The scale, repetition, and impact of these breakdowns leave no credible path forward under the current leadership structure.”

Cervera’s comments come during a turbulent period for Broward Public Schools, the nation’s sixth-largest School District, which has faced ample scrutiny in recent years over governance failures, financial instability and leadership turnover.

In recent weeks, audits and media reports have detailed breakdowns in how District staff mishandled a major construction oversight procurement tied to the District’s $125 million capital program. An internal audit found procedures were bypassed, required evaluations were skipped and the School Board was not properly informed, leading to a rushed and legally questionable process now facing collapse.

The controversy — described by Board members Jeff Holness and Allen Zeman as an “existential threat” and “five-alarm fire,” respectively — follows an earlier firestorm over the terminated office lease, prompting Board members to openly question whether senior administrators could be trusted.

Cervera’s call also comes as Broward schools face deep structural challenges. Enrollment has dropped by roughly 10,000 students in the past year, contributing to an $85 million budget shortfall. District leaders are weighing nearly three dozen school closures, staff reductions and program cuts while grappling with ongoing public skepticism.

Superintendent Howard Hepburn, who took office last year amid lingering fallout from past state interventions, has acknowledged the District’s struggles but has largely urged patience as reviews continue. But critics, including multiple Board members, say their patience has run out.

Cervera emphasized that accountability does not stop with staff but includes senior leadership’s responsibility to ensure transparency and compliance.

“This is not about politics or blame. It is about restoring trust,” he said. “The School Board governs. Staff executes. When that line is blurred, the system fails.”

The District’s ongoing turmoil follows years of volatility in Broward Schools, punctuated in August 2022, when Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended and replaced four Board members following the mismanagement of a voter-approved construction.

Just one of the suspended Board members, Donna Korn, sought election to her old seat later that year, but she lost to Zeman.

More recently, in April 2025, conservative Brenda Fam resigned from the Board, complaining of “personal attacks” over her disparaging remarks about the LGBTQ community, “unprofessional behavior” by her colleagues on the dais and what she described as a district that “always appears to be in financial crisis.”

DeSantis quickly appointed Cervera, a fellow Republican, to replace Fam in the District 6 seat. Cervera IS running to keep it in November and currently faces two Democratic challengers: Broward Soil and Water Conservation District member Jessie Bastos and Robert Fernandez III, a U.S. Army veteran-turned-history teacher who helped write Florida’s controversial guidelines for Black history studies and now is advocating for those rules to be rewritten.

Four other Board seats are also up for grabs this year.

Apollo Beach Republican Rep. Michael Owen is pushing legislation that would more clearly separate treatment providers from recovery housing in Florida, limiting when mental health providers can use certified recovery residences to house patients and changing how those facilities are licensed and inspected.

HB 923 would update state laws governing recovery residences and licensed mental health and substance abuse providers, with changes affecting housing rules, licensing, inspections and record-keeping.

The bill aims to separate treatment from housing, spelling out when providers can use recovery residences, also known as sober living homes, to house patients and when they must operate fully licensed facilities instead. It also seeks to make it easier for existing providers to expand services or change ownership.

Under the proposal, most licensed mental health treatment providers would no longer be allowed to house their patients in recovery residences. Those patients would instead have to live in housing licensed specifically as a mental health facility.

An exception would allow certain higher-level providers to use certified recovery residences to house people receiving outpatient mental health treatment, as long as residents are separated based on their primary diagnosis.

The bill, filed Monday, would also change how licenses are handled, allowing both probationary and regular licenses to be transferred to new owners and narrowing what qualifies as a license transfer.

HB 923 would require the Department of Children and Families to issue a regular license within 30 days to an existing provider seeking to add services or expand to new locations, as long as the provider remains in good standing.

The measure would also tie treatment room size and group occupancy limits to statewide building and fire codes, rather than separate agency rules.

Other provisions allow credentialing entities to conduct inspections of recovery residences but limit their access to clinical and medical records when considering disciplinary action. The bill would also adjust notification timelines for certain personnel issues, remove a requirement that some executives be immediately removed following an arrest, and make certain recovery residence records confidential.

HB 923 has not yet been referred to committee. If approved, it would take effect July 1.