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Office of Safe Schools reports improved compliance but flags safer-space decals, secured doors and ID cards
Summary
District safety staff said Q2 inspections covered 32 schools (~11% of facilities) and found overall compliance up to about 75–76% compared with roughly 39% a year earlier; recurring issues include safer-space markings, secured instructional doors and ID cards missing crisis hotline details. Board asked staff to report back within about a month.
The Broward County School Board heard its Office of Safe Schools quarterly report during a workshop, with staff saying district compliance has improved but some basic safety items still need attention.
Morgan Nykhill, the district’s compliance coordinator for safety, security and emergency preparedness, told the board that the Office inspected or reinspected 32 schools in the quarter—about 11% of the district’s facilities—and that roughly 75–76% of those inspections showed no deficiencies, compared with about 39% at the same point last year. The presentation separated district-operated schools (24 visits with 83.3% compliance) from charter inspections (five visits, about 60% compliant on those visits).
“Of those schools, 22 did not present any deficiencies on the compliance visit, giving us a 75% percentage rate,” Morgan Nykhill said. She noted that some counts exclude reinspections and that staff requested clearer breakdowns to improve transparency.
Jim LaRosa, director of safety and security, told the board that many of the deficiencies flagged are transient or logistical—safer-space signs painted over or removed, ID cards lost or reprinted without the crisis hotline on the back, or doors that fail to latch because of mechanical problems.
“We're on the fourth round of visiting every school for compliance checks,” LaRosa said. “As they're catching these deficiencies, we're fixing them. We maintain a stock of stickers and we correct many issues on the spot.”
Board members pressed for follow-up. Dr. Zeman asked that staff verify “every instructional space in Broward County has a sign on it by next month,” saying it’s a simple, visible measure to reassure families. Superintendent Hepburn said he would direct the emergency management and compliance teams to prioritize these checks and report back on corrections and counts, while noting that completing classroom-by-classroom verification across the entire district in a month may require leveraging school-based security staff.
The presentation also highlighted longer-term security work: separating district and charter compliance, reducing the number of items inspected per visit (from 18 to 11 for some measures), and continuing partnerships with HR and emergency management to address repeat issues.
The board did not take a formal vote but asked staff for a targeted report on safer-space markers, secured instructional doors and ID-card crisis-hotline compliance, and for a clearer presentation of how inspections are calculated going forward.
