BY SUSAN FERRECHIO
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The Broward County School Board on Tuesday could banish the Boy Scouts from the district's 215 schools and centers with 30 days notice, adhering to a partnership agreement that prohibits the group from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

Some of the School Board's nine members who were polled on the issue said they planned to follow the policy when they vote, which would mark the end of the district's 40-year relationship with the scouts.

Other board members said they might seek a compromise, perhaps charging the group money to use district facilities.

The scouts currently pay nothing to hold meetings in 60 schools and recruit in others across the district.

``I don't want to discriminate against them, but they are discriminating against us,'' School Board Chairwoman Darla L. Carter said, adding that she believes politics is playing too big a role in the situation. ``The kids are going to be hurt by getting caught in the middle of this, not the adults.''

The controversy swirling around the Boy Scouts and the school system, brewing for months, will come to a head when the School Board votes on Superintendent Frank Till's recommendation to terminate the partnership agreement and the transportation agreement with the group.

If the board votes to approve Till's proposal, the scouts would also lose the nonprofit rates for the use of district buses that transport scouts to field trips and other events.

There are about 12,000 Boy Scouts in Broward County.

The partnership policy, which includes the anti-discrimination clause, was signed in 1998 by Jeff Herrmann, Scout executive for the South Florida Boy Scouts, which oversees Scouts in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. Herrmann said if the board votes to end its relationship with the Scouts, the organization may sue the school system, claiming wrongful exclusion.

In the meantime, Boy Scouts officials will try to raise money from private organizations to pay for transportation, and will hold meetings in churches and other privately run facilities.

``The impact is going to be on kids who need scouting the most,'' Herrmann said Friday. ``I think, ultimately, the School Board is interested in the same thing we are -- providing an educational program to the young people in the community. We've had a relationship with Broward schools for 40 years and perhaps longer. We hope that relationship is not thrown by the wayside.''

Till said his recommendation is based on the fact that the South Florida chapter of the scouts has pledged to uphold the organization's national policy prohibiting gays from becoming scouts or scout leaders.

``If the recommendation says to cancel the contract, I'll be voting yes,'' School Board member Lois Wexler said. ``I have to stand by what board policy is.''

Other School Board members would not indicate how they planned to vote, but said the district's policy prohibiting discrimination would be paramount in their decision.

``I think great weight should be given to the existing policy,'' said School Board member Paul D. Eichner, adding that he has not yet made up his mind.

Board member Judie S. Budnick agreed.

``I will probably have to follow the law,'' she said.

The Scouts' ban on gay leaders has been under intense scrutiny since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the organization's decision to exclude them. South Florida has been a flashpoint in the debate, with several governments considering severing ties with or cutting funding to the scouts.

But School Board officials say only a few people have signed up to speak at their meeting at Western High School.

If the Scouts are banned, the board will likely have to review its relationship with other groups that use district facilities, including churches.

Till, responding to requests from School Board members and officials from the Boy Scouts, is compiling a list of every organization that uses a school facility. He is checking to see whether each one agreed to sign the partnership agreement prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, as well as a multitude of other characteristics such as race and religion.