More information has emerged regarding Zoie Saunders’ brief stint as Chief School Executioner (Ed. Note: Actual title may vary) for the Broward County Public Schools. It’s not exactly flattering, and it raises questions about the timing of Gov. Phil Scott’s hiring process.

Reminder that in December, a mere three months ago, Saunders was hired specifically to manage a consolidation effort in Broward County’s schools, many of which are underenrolled. The plan has been awash in controversy as school officials have dropped unsubtle hints that it’s a done deal even before a series of public forums was held, and many fear the closures will disproportionately hit students of color. There are also massive questions about the scale of the effort; as few as five schools or as many as several dozen could be targeted.

And a March 9 article in the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that the plan “could turn into a major land grab for local cities and developers,” including operators of charter schools. “The district owns about 38 million square feet worth of property in a county where open land is scarce,” according to the Sun Sentinel, so you can see how this unschooling plan could touch off a feeding frenzy.

This casts the plan in a different light, as a way for system administrators to ease budgetary pressure by cashing in some prime real estate. Might work in the short run, but it’s not a strategy for sustainability.

And managing this process, which she is abandoning well before her job is done, is the sum total of Zoie Saunders’ experience in public school management.

That same Sun Sentinel article raises questions about exactly when Saunders was auditioning for her new job. On March 9 she was front and center in the consolidation process with nary a hint that her eyes were straying northward.

But she was hired as Vermont Education Secretary less than two weeks later. She must have been well into the hiring process when she was supposedly focused on the Broward County plan.

In fact, she may have been a candidate for the Vermont job even before she took the Broward post. Readers with encyclopedic memories will recall that the state Board of Education approved the names of three finalists on November 15 and forwarded them to the governor.

Okay, well, either Saunders was double-dipping in the job market or the Scott administration’s search process went into undisclosed overtime and considered candidates other than the ones approved by the Board of Ed. That would seem to be a bad thing, if not a violation of the law.

When I inquired about the process in early February, this is the answer I got on February 2 from Scott’s spokesperson Jason Maulucci:

There have been a couple rounds of interviews so far and the Governor will be conducting final rounds beginning next week.

“Next week” would have been February 5-9, little more than a month into Saunders’ tenure at Broward. Note that Maulucci didsn’t specify whether the interviews were limited to Board-approved candidates. Nor did I ask, to be fair.

Meanwhile, the potential real estate windfall continues in Broward County amid signs of deep division in the community and even on the district’s Board of Education. One member recently said that the district ought to close at least 40 schools in the next two years, while another basically replied “Over my dead body.” In those circumstances, Vermont might have seemed like an oasis of calm by contrast. Might explain why Saunders is accepting a $12,000 pay cut and moving from a no-income-tax state to Vermont, meaning her net pay cut is more like $22,000 accounting only for state income tax.

Anyway, Broward is barrelling ahead with the plan, whatever it is, despite the loss of the executive charged with shepherding it. And she’s quick-stepping her way north, planning to start her new post in mid-April, less than a month after her hiring was announced. Fast turnaround as these things usually go for top executives.

This all depends on the state Senate confirming her appointment. Given all the questions about her experience and qualifications, not to mention how the Scott administration conducted its search process, it is devoutly to be hoped that the Senate will do a lot more than simply rubber-stamp the governor’s choice.