South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
State seeks answers after grand jury report
Department of Education believes some safety issues at Broward schools are ‘ongoing’
A statewide grand jury’s blistering critique of a school renovation program led to the removal of four Broward school board members, but the report also accuses the school district of serious safety failures.
The state Department of Education believes some of these issues — including under-reporting of crimes, failure to work with law enforcement and allowing students with serious felony issues back on campus — “are ongoing and require immediate action,” according to an Aug. 29 letter to Superintendent Vickie Cartwright from Tim Hay, director of the department’s Office of Safe Schools.
Hay met with Broward school officials Thursday. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Education did not reply to requests for comment.
School district spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion refused to answer specific questions about how the district was addressing issues outlined in Hay’s letter.
“Broward County Public Schools remains committed to providing safe and secure learning environments for students and staff and is happy to collaborate with the Office of Safe Schools in that endeavor,” Concepcion said in an email. “We are looking forward to receiving the state’s report about their visit to the district, which will address all the questions you have outlined.”
Safety concerns in Broward were the impetus for the grand jury report since the county was the site of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which left 17 dead.
The grand jury report was completed in April 2021 but remained sealed for 16 months, so it’s a snapshot in time that may not reflect current conditions. Still,
it was used by Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove four School Board members who were criticized in the report. He replaced them with four conservative members.
Cartwright told the new school board Tuesday that she’s fixed many safety issues.
“I think you will be pleasantly surprised,” Cartwright said at Tuesday’s meeting. “You would have thought I had a copy of the grand jury report, which I didn’t. These are areas myself and staff recognized early on as areas that needed to be shored up.”
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who chairs the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, said he’s seen “exponential change” under Cartwright. The commission was formed to investigate the tragedy and make safety recommendations statewide.
“The district is moving in the right direction,” Gualtieri said. “The grand jury report is old, and the district has been self-correcting or is in the process of correcting. But there are still some issues of concern.”
The main concern, he said, is under-reporting of crimes, which he said is happening in districts statewide.
Here are some of the safety-related issues from the grand jury report that the state Department of Education letter says may need fixing, and what steps the district has taken.