CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County Public Schools will hold a town hall meeting at J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs.
District leaders and experts from Safe Havens International, a nonprofit campus safety organization, will give an update on school safety measures before opening up to members of the community at 6:30 p.m., Monday.
The meeting is a chance for BCPS Superintendent Robert Runcie to hear from parents.
“We’ve been very, I think, thoughtful and I think patient in terms of how we’ve operated,” Runcie said, “so we want to hear from parents in an environment where they will have the greatest opportunity to ask questions.”
With the memories of Feb. 14. 2018 still fresh in the minds of members of the Parkland and Coral Springs communities, how the district has strengthened school security will be a hot topic of discussion.
Hours before Monday’s meeting, BCPS named Brian Katz as the district’s new chief of Safety, Security and Emergency Preparedness.
“Parents want answers,” Broward County School Board Member Lori Alhadeff said.
Monday’s meeting will be held almost a month after a closed-door session at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where Runcie met with freshman parents for the first time.
“I absolutely thought it should have been a public meeting. I want it to be a public meeting,” Alhadeff said.
The superintendent has faced a fair share of criticism for how the district reassigned employees in the months after the shooting at MSD. Some members of the community even said he should be fired.
If the Monday town hall is anything like the meeting at Piper High school in Sunrise back in November, Runcie can expect an earful.
“I don’t even know how you guys could have done what you did to our school today,” one community member said at the Sunrise meeting.
Monday’s meeting comes less than a week after the Florida Supreme Court granted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request for a grand jury investigation into school safety.
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