Visitors to Broward County schools: Get ready to be inconvenienced.
On the first day of school next year, there will be only one way to get in during the school day at 135 of Broward’s 230 schools. Although many doors will be open for arrival and dismissal, signs and fences will steer visitors during the day toward a “Welcome Center,” where they will have to show their IDs to enter the school.
They also will have to wear a badge as they travel through the campus.
Visitors will see an abundance of these new safety features when school starts Aug. 15, including new fences, double-doors, cameras and security staff. The school district is spending $26 million to create single points of entry at all its schools, with completion expected on all campuses by early 2019.
Expect many new procedures as well as delays and disruptions, Superintendent Robert Runcie said on Wednesday.
“There is no way we’re going to implement security measures the community expects from us and not inconvenience visitors,” Runcie said.
In addition: “Don’t expect perfection on the first day.”
He said there could be confusion about the new rules and long lines as students and parents figure out new routines. Students also can expect more “Code Red” drills next year, which allow them to practice how to behave in an emergency.
The massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 spurred a spate of new safety measures in Broward and a national conversation about safeguarding schools.
Among the efforts has been speeding up the completion of “single points of entry” for campus visitors, which rely on fencing and door systems to limit visitors’ access to one entrance. Runcie on Wednesday showed the news media a newly completed single-point system at Miramar High School, which got new gates, a full-time security monitor at the entrance, and cameras that staff can monitor from their mobile devices.
“I’ll be able to see students really clearly with this upgraded system,” said Miramar Principal Maria Formoso, who added she got a large real-time video screen in her office.
The school district budgeted $26 million for the single-entry-point systems, an effort that started about two years ago. The plan was expedited because of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.
The shooter at Stoneman Douglas arrived near the end of the school day, bypassing security. The school district, aware that arrival and dismissal times are vulnerable to intruders, said the presence of school resource officers and the requirement that students wear ID badges will improve safety during these times when lots of people are coming and going.
“I feel very confident about these measures we are taking,” School Board member Patti Good said. “It’s going to become our new normal. Collectively, I hope they make a difference.”
The district also plans to use metal detectors at Stoneman Douglas, but Runcie said details, including who will monitor them, have not yet been worked out.
A retired Secret Service agent has been hired to review what role school administrators and security staff played on the day of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.
The retired agent, Steve Wexler, will review the actions of school employees during the massacre in which a shooter killed 17 people, school district officials say. The review will go further to include which procedures and circumstances may have affected the tragedy, Runcie said.
“We’re looking at the entire school so we can get some lessons learned and look at what we need to change at that school and any other school,” Runcie said.
