FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County Public Schools introduced its new security chief at their Fort Lauderdale headquarters.
BCPS Superintendent Robert Runcie appointed Brian Katz, a graduate of South Broward High School, as BCPS’s new Chief of Safety, Security and Emergency Preparedness, Friday.
Before coming to the district, Katz worked security at Google, and he said taking the BCPS job was personal.
“No question it is [personal],” Katz said. “My daughter showed me this job description and said, ‘This sounds like what you do. Can’t you do it for us?'”
Runcie said his goal is to eventually have the safest school district in the country.
Katz returns home to help secure schools after the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 where 17 lives were lost in shooting.
He brings with him 20 years experience, preparing for and responding to active shooter incidents.
Runcie said the new position is groundbreaking.
“What I would consider unprecedented because we know of no other large district in this country that’s doing this now,” Runcie said.
It’s been a busy week for Runcie.
The superintendent survived a Tuesday vote that would have fired him.
“Today, I think, marks an opportunity for us to move to a new chapter,” Runcie said Tuesday.
It’s a chapter that includes Katz, who’s charged with leading a department for which there is no manual.
“I looked at this — as you called out before — as just an amazingly challenging construct that hasn’t been focused on before,” Katz said. “That has just an unimaginable impact ’cause it’s not just on our kids, locally, it’s on our community, and it’s how this can potentially can be replicated in other parts of the country.”
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