Five things to know about Peter Licata, Broward’s new superintendent
The Broward School Board hired Peter Licata as its new superintendent on June 15. He officially joined the school district Tuesday, July 11:
Here are five things you may not know about him:
1. He’s a South Florida native
Licata, 58, grew up in Pompano Beach in Broward County.
“If It wasn’t a chess tournament at Blanche Ely High, it was basketball camp at Pompano High, Ft. Lauderdale Track Club at Dillard High, or middle school basketball leagues at Deerfield High,” he wrote in his cover letter. “Starting first grade at McNabb [sic] Elementary was my first exposure to Broward County Public Schools and I still remember Mrs. Gregory as my teacher.”
“Broward County is where I was born, raised, married, and I now want to make it the best educational system in all of Florida as its superintendent,” he added.
He received a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Miami, a master’s in educational leadership from Barry University and a doctorate in global leadership from Lynn University in Boca Raton.
2. He’s been working in education for about 30 years
Licata launched his career in September 1994 as a teacher and basketball coach at John F. Kennedy Middle School in the Palm Beach County school district.
He worked his way up there, spending 15 years teaching and leading at the middle and high school levels, and another 14 years at the district-leadership level.
Most recently, he worked as the south region superintendent for the School District of Palm Beach County, the 10th-largest in the U.S. In that capacity, he oversaw 60 schools, 65,000 students, more than 5,000 teachers and four instructional superintendents.
He also worked as an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University from 2011 to 2019.
3. He’s been seeking the superintendent position for a while
Licata had previously applied to other superintendent positions and even became a finalist in some.
Most notably, he advanced as a semifinalist for the last Broward search that eventually ended with the school board picking former Superintendent Vickie Cartwright. But he dropped out that time because he moved on as a finalist for the superintendent’s job at Lincoln Public Schools, the second-largest public school district in Nebraska.
Broward is the nation’s sixth-largest school district, with more than 200,000 students.
4. He’s got a ‘large Italian family’
Licata and his wife, who grew up living about a block away from him, have four children. Two of them got married last year and two will get married this year.
They already have two grandchildren and a third on the way, due Aug. 16.
This week, he described his family to the board as a “large Italian family.”
5. He could make more than his predecessor
The Broward School Board unanimously approved a three-year contract for Licata on Tuesday, agreeing to pay him an annual salary of $350,000 with the possibility of an additional $20,000 in performance bonuses. The bonus money is dependent on the school district boosting its rating from the state to an A and progressing on the district’s controversial SMART bond program.
Former Superintendent Vickie Cartwright made $350,000 per year without bonuses.
