Scott Travis

About 50-thousand Broward County public school students and school employees are being told that their personal data may have been breached during a ransomware attack months ago.

Broward is the latest of the South Florida school districts to loosen their mask requirements just days after a judge on Friday ruled that Florida’s order banning mask mandates was permissible.

The families of 52 people killed, injured or traumatized during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High have reached a $25 million settlement with the Broward School District, the lawyer for the families confirmed Monday.

Vickie Cartwright isn’t Broward’s permanent schools’ superintendent — at least not yet. The School Board voted 6 to 3 on Tuesday to reject a request by member Nora Rupert to forgo a national superintendent search and immediately offer the long-term job to Cartwright, who has been interim superintendent since Aug. 1.

A week after the Biden administration awarded Broward Schools $421,000 for defying a state ban on mask mandates, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran has threatened to take that money away.

Seven years after approving an $800 million school renovation program, mold remains a major problem, inspection reports show, even in schools where work has been completed. Many others are still waiting for promised repairs, with only about two dozen of 200 major projects complete.

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran has issued a letter threatening to withhold money from the Broward School Board if they don’t reverse their decision to require all students to wear masks.

The board voted 8-1, with Lori Alhadeff dissenting, to defy Gov. Ron DeSantis and directives from two state agencies. The board also agreed to pursue legal action challenging state rules that allow parents to ignore mask mandates for their children.

Vickie Cartwright plans to take over as Broward schools superintendent Aug. 2 with an expected salary of $275,000.

Vickie Cartwright, a longtime Orange County administrator and recent superintendent in Wisconsin, was selected Thursday as the interim superintendent for Broward schools.

His contract requires three months’ notice, so he said his last day will be Oct. 11. Fennoy has been in the role for three years.

Computer hackers are demanding as much as $40 million in ransom to prevent leaking personal information about students in Broward County Public Schools.