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Duval County School Board hears high-level update on security assessments, grants and threat management
Summary
District staff told the board they completed 193 school-safety assessments for 2024–25, reported 15 Q3 school visits by the state Office of Safe Schools, cited an in-process $1.8 million hardening grant and highlighted increases in Fortify Florida tips and threat-management training.
Duval County School Board members on a workshop agenda received a high-level briefing on school security risk assessments, hardening grants and threat-management work.
Glenn Burton, the district’s school safety specialist, told the board the district completed about 193 assessments for the 2024–25 cycle and that the Office of Safe Schools visited 15 schools in the third quarter (10 traditional public schools and five charter schools). Burton said most findings were minor compliance items — for example, missing training certificates or posters — and that those are being addressed. He emphasized that some assessment content is protected from public disclosure and will be reviewed in a forthcoming executive session.
"We got $1,800,000," Burton said of the 2023–24 hardening grant award, noting the district was still awaiting the final grant award paperwork. He also described the district’s phased implementation of Evolv weapons-detection technology in high schools and plans to expand into some middle schools.
Burton outlined the district’s threat-management efforts: a threat model launched in January, more than 1,400 people trained last year and roughly 600 threat-focused assessments conducted between January and June. He said Fortify Florida reporting has increased, with "over 400 tips already this year through October," up from roughly 150 tips all of last year.
Board members pressed staff on how charter schools are covered. A sitting chief on the panel said charter schools are required to meet the same statutory standard and may be staffed by district guardians, school police officers, municipal police or contracted security depending on the school’s arrangement. "Some of them do and some of them don't," the chief said, describing a mix of school-district guardians, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, municipal officers and private contracted guards trained under the Guardian program.
Burton also described a large reunification exercise the district ran in June and said staff were identifying off-site reunification locations (for example, an equestrian center) to avoid moving thousands of students into an already-occupied school building.
The briefing included several implementation items staff said they would bring back to the board: scheduling an executive session before the end of October to discuss protected assessment findings and continuing coordination on hardening-grant priorities, strategic badge use, mapping-camera integration and stop-the-bleed supply distribution (the district reported a $61,500 award for those supplies).
The board’s next step: staff will schedule the executive session and return with recommended actions and any formal items that require board approval.
