FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County Public Schools members have voted to revoke a Davie school’s charter license after the school failed to comply with security regulations.
School Board members gathered at the Kathleen C. Wright Administration Center in Fort Lauderdale to discuss the future Championship Academy of Distinction, Tuesday.
“It sends a message that regardless if you’re a district-managed school or a charter-managed public school that there will be no compromise on the law and the requirements for school safety and security,” BCPS Superintendent Robert Runcie said.
A state law enacted after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School requires that every public school must have an armed guard present on campus. The officer has to be sent though a police department, sheriff’s department or through a state-funded guardianship program.
The school said they had a privately-hired security officer on campus for the first day of school, but BCPS said the guard was not an officer or deputy, had not been trained through the guardianship program and therefore, did not comply with the rules.
The school board issues charters to schools throughout the county, but Runcie suggested to revoke school’s charter. The school will not be shut down, but it will instead be run by BCPS.
“They will stay intact, but we will oversee the day-to-day management operations and, of course, compliance with safety, security and other state laws that are required,” Runcie said.
Parents of children enrolled in the school attended the meeting and asked the school board to reconsider their efforts to revoke the charter.
“We got the security guard now. The paperwork has been submitted. It’s a process,” a parent said.
A main concern among parents is the students will have to relocate, and they do not want to send their children to a different school.
“We remain steadfast in our responsibility to bring forth recommendations to this school board to terminate agreements with any charter school that, with advanced notice, knowingly opened school without a safe school officer,” said Runcie. “This isn’t about a school with an officer out sick or held up by circumstances outside of their control. This is a school that knew that they would not have coverage, did not inform the district and opened school anyway.”
Todd Dupell, the school’s principal, spoke at the meeting as well and said he did not feel the students’ safety was at risk.
“Championship Academy of Davie welcomed students back for the 2019-2020 school year with both a contract for a detail officer with the police department and an armed guard registered for the September training course with Broward Sheriff’s Office,” said Dupell. “It’s our position that at no time was the true safety of our students in question.”
Dupell also said he did everything he could.
“At the last hour, at six o’clock at night, I said, ‘Help. What else can you do?’ And you sent four people that didn’t help me,” Dupell said at the meeting.
BCPS Member Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter Alyssa Alhadeff in the Parkland massacre, said, “The tragedy happened here in Broward County, and we were the only school in the state of Florida to not be in compliance, and that is unacceptable.”
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