Schools headquarters evacuated for COVID-19 Employee at Broward administrative building tests positive for coronavirus

The Broward school district evacuated its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale for the second Wednesday in a row due to a COVID-19 case.

Juan Ruperez, manager for administrative support, alerted staff at the K.C. Wright administrative building about 12:30 p.m. that an employee in the building had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

“Disinfecting is scheduled to be completed today and all staff must leave the building by 2 p.m.,” he wrote. “Staff on site may choose to leave the building now and continue to work remotely.”

He said notification will be sent out once the building has been disinfected.

The employee was not in the building Wednesday, according to a statement from the office of Chief Communications Officer Kathy Koch.

Although Ruperez’s email said employees must leave by 2 p.m., the statement from Koch’s office disputed the term “evacuation.”

“In order to conduct appropriate disinfecting, employees at [K.C. Wright] today were requested to leave by 2 p.m.” the statement said. “This was not an evacuation. There were approximately 40 employees in the building at the time of closing today,”

A similar message instructing employees to vacate the building was sent July 29 due to another COVID-19 case.

The COVID-19 cases at K.C. Wright come during a time of increasing anxiety in the district about the virus. As of Aug. 2, the district had 268 reported COVID-19 cases of employee and contractors at 150 locations.

The school year is starting out virtually only on Aug. 19. Superintendent Robert Runcie had planned to bring a few special needs students back, but he postponed that plan after hearing concerns from teachers.

K.C. Wright is the site of School Board meetings. Several public speakers have complained in recent weeks that although School Board members are attending remotely from their homes, anyone who wants to make live public comments is required to go to the building to speak into a camera.

The speakers have asked if they could instead attend the meeting virtually, something district administrators have rejected. Instead, speakers were told they could email their comments and a staff member would read them.