Kids may feel a bit safer at school this year, thanks to a massive increase in the number of security personnel at Broward County Public Schools. The district plans to almost double the number of security officers in the coming school year to about 1,250.
The new positions come as a result of increased property taxes, which were approved by voter referendum in 2018. 500 new security personnel will be added to the BCPS payroll. However, no new police or School Resource Officers.
“There are significant vacancies in law enforcement, I think about 300 in the county, so getting additional [school resource officers] wasn’t really feasible,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said at a recent meeting.
The district will, instead, be adding armed and unarmed security people at virtually every school.
In the wake of the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas High School, a plan was put in place to ensure that at least one armed police officer or security person would be present per 1,000 students at each school. In addition, the plan calls for doubling the number of unarmed security monitors at the schools. Many of the unarmed monitors will be working at the elementary and middle schools around the county.
School security personnel will include:
197 Police Officers or Sheriff’s Deputies
93 School Guardians, who will be armed
196 management-level Security Specialists
686 Unarmed Security Monitors
In addition, there will be a number of security personnel that will not be assigned to a specific school. These people will function as a reserve force to fill-in for absences, sick days or vacation days from permanent staff.