Howard Hepburn had something on his mind.

The Broward school superintendent is weathering his first major crisis involving two controversial financial decisions. One cost his chief operations officer her job, and the other prompted him to declare an emergency to maintain oversight of costly school construction projects.

For weeks, the Sun Sentinel has reported on how Hepburn’s staff mishandled a five-year, $2.6 million lease and separate bids for hiring a construction oversight vendor.

At a meeting Dec. 16, board members were angry over being kept in the dark by Hepburn’s staff. A highly critical audit forced them to reject all three vendor bids because of flawed specs and lack of information. Adding to their frustration, board members said bid details were not sent to them for review as they insisted, partly as a check against possible favoritism.

Steve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel columnist

After revelations by Sun Sentinel education reporter Scott Travis and two editorials, Hepburn’s staff sent this newspaper an opinion essay Friday authored by the superintendent. But rather than directly address the financial problems, Hepburn criticized the Sun Sentinel and said the district’s good works are too often overlooked.

He accused us of “an overreliance on sensationalized headlines that focus on conflict while often overlooking what matters most — the academic progress and success of our students.” Hepburn did not challenge the facts we reported.

Hepburn is entitled to his opinion, but he risks straining his relations further with board members. It raises questions of what kind of advice Hepburn is getting from his media team, led by chief of staff and communications director John Sullivan.

School board member Allen Zeman was troubled by the tone of Hepburn’s essay.

“When you’re in a hole, stop digging,” Zeman said. “This was just not the best allocation of the superintendent’s time.”

He said the issues raised in news reports are “legitimate” and that “it would have been a better choice for the superintendent to have focused on those.”

The Sun Sentinel takes seriously its responsibility to inform the public on the workings of government in this age of declining public confidence in the media generally.

As readers know, the Broward County school district has long been the subject of concern over how it spends your money.

Without trusted media sources, there would be no oversight of how Broward schools spend billions of tax dollars — a truly frightening prospect. What Hepburn calls a “focus on conflict” looks to us like a crisis of confidence, with Hepburn at the center.

It was Zeman who called the botched bids “a five-alarm fire” in December. Board member Nora Rupert referred to a “carousel of crazy” at district headquarters. A third board member, Jeff Holness called it “troubling” and “unacceptable.”

Board Chairwoman Sarah Leonardi said: “This is honestly embarrassing for this school district and this board.”

That’s the sentiment that Hepburn could have, and in my opinion, should have addressed in his op-ed. He didn’t, but he will have to at the next board meeting Tuesday.

In his essay, the superintendent emphasized that he strongly supports local journalism.

“Our newspapers,” he wrote, “should be a mirror of our community — reflecting both our challenges and our successes.”

We agree, and as long as challenges dominate the school board’s time, they will continue to receive our attention.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or at (850) 567-2240.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/01/03/schools-chief-picked-the-wrong-fight-steve-bousquet/