When will more officers arrive?
More school safety forces on the way, but it takes time, officials say.
WELLINGTON — More school police officers and more safety measures are on the way, but the process will take time, officials told a joint meeting of Wellington’s Education and Public Safety committees Wednesday night.
The meeting was planned before the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 dead. Committee members originally planned to tackle safety on more of a logistical basis as it relates to traffic, then move on to discuss bullying and fighting.
Those plans changed after Feb. 14, Assistant Village Manager Jim Barnes said. The boards instead decided to discuss overall safety. “Our intent with this meeting is really to have a general discussion,” Barnes said, with information gathered and used for a larger community forum with the village and school district at a date to be determined.
The meeting drew some big names: Palm Beach County School District Area Superintendent Frank Rodriguez; School Board member Marcia Andrews; state Rep. Matt Willhite, a former Wellington council member; all five current members of Wellington’s village council; Palm Beach County Schools Police Chief Larry Leon; Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office Lt. Eli Shaivitz; and every principal from Wellington’s public schools.
A major issue on the table:
The hiring of 75 new school police officers before the start of next school year. It’s part of a new law passed this month by state lawmakers, and signed by Gov. Rick Scott, that allocates just under $100 million to hire new police officers to guard schools throughout the state. Palm Beach County will get about $6 million.
“We know we’re going to have to hire 75 new police officers as we begin this new school year, but we can’t wait for August 2018,” Andrews said.
In Palm Beach County, there are one or two officers for each high school, one officer per middle school and typically one officer per three elementary schools. Until more officers are hired, Andrews said the district is using police aides to fill gaps and teachers are walking the halls during their planning periods “to be an extra set of eyes as we move around the school.”
“It’s a slow process, but we have to pick up this process,” she added.
Leon said one of the big challenges in hiring so many officers is finding qualified candidates while competing with other agencies. “Every agency has vacancies,” he said. “And we’re competing with them as well.”
The school district police department is assembling a team to focus on retention and recruitment, Leon said.
Willhite, the state representative whose district includes much of the western communities, said he would like to see the school police department sign contracts with local police agencies to help provide security until more officers can be hired. PBSO does provide some assistance now under an informal agreement.
“I would venture ... that by August of next school year, we will not have officers in every school,” Willhite said. “We need safety in our schools now.”
Since the incident in Parkland, Palm Beach County principals have given the district lists of what they need to make their schools safer, Andrews said. The district is working to prioritize each item, focusing on some of the older schools that have more than one point of entry, making them less secure.
Andrew’s District 6 includes Royal Palm Beach, The Acreage, Loxahatchee Groves and the Glades region in addition to Wellington. Of those municipalities, Wellington’s schools are the oldest, she said.
“I’m spending my time on school safety issues here in Wellington,” Andrews said. “... The money has to come in to upgrade the Wellington schools.”