The Broward County School Board announced Tuesday it unanimously approved a contract with Safe Havens International, a non-profit campus safety organization, to provide independent security and risk assessment services to its schools.
Safe Havens will conduct comprehensive risk assessments at each public school in Broward County, excluding charter schools, according to the press release.
Broward County is home to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were shot and killed by a student on Feb. 14.
The assessments will include two distinct phases to accelerate its completion.
Part one, which will be conducted over the summer, will include a physical assessment of each school to identify the physical security measures and building systems unique to each building.
Part two will include an assessment of each school’s operations and a discussion of potential vulnerabilities with school administration, staff and students.
Now that the contract has been approved, Safe Havens will immediately begin deploying resources to start the first phase of the assessments, says the release.
“This work is critical as we move forward to enhance safety and security in our schools across the District,” said BCPS Superintendent Robert W. Runcie.
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Additionally, Safe Havens will provide the following services to Broward County schools:
- Review all district security policies and conduct analysis against best practices
- Review all safety and security training programs
- Review and evaluate the possibility of implementing various security vendor offerings
- Review the district’s current building construction design criteria
- Assist the district with its competitive grant application to the Florida Department of Education
- Produce a final master plan report detailing the results of the various analyses, short and long-term recommendations for improvements of existing security measures and estimated costs for implementing them
- Participation in public hearings with the community to share the results of the risk assessments
Click here to watch the discussion at the school board meeting.
