FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – With declining enrollment in Broward schools, leaders are finding ways to trim their budget.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn released a memo suggesting cutting security positions, saying it could save the district millions of dollars.
The district is looking at tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts as parents are now choosing options outside of public schools.
The district is planning to eliminate 104 campus monitors and four other security positions for the next school year.
Hepburn said the district is also “looking at consolidating contracts that may be duplicating services or not renewing contracts where we don’t need those services anymore.”
“We’re going to start with attrition and not filling positions that people retire from,” Board Chair Debra Hixon said. “We’re doing the best that we can without having to lay off people.”
Hixon, who became a school safety advocate after her husband was killed in the Parkland school shooting, says she believes the cuts are practical given the numerous other safety layers now in place, including metal detectors and panic buttons.
“My initial reaction was, you know, ‘What are we doing?’” Hixon said. “But again, when you think about it, if we’re projected to lose 8000 students next year, then you wouldn’t need as much of that peripheral staff as you did.”
She said the district is “trying to look at consolidating schools so those security positions would be shifted.”
Other proposed cuts include reducing conference travel for district staff and more efficient transportation management.
“One of the biggest (savings) for us right now, going into the new school year, is saving about $50 million just by limiting overtime,” Hepburn said.