profile board member with us Live next. com or call 34567 for care. Those who lead Broward
Schools are dealing with an
onslaught of issues this week
from trying to choose a
transformational new
superintendent to safety bomb
threats and a series of weapon
like items brought to schools. A
lot talk about with school board
member Dan Fogg and Oli who is
among those with the governor in
south this week as he signed a
series of into law that make
wholesale to state education.
Dan Baldwin only great to have
you back the program welcome.
Thank you so much. And happy
Mother’s Day. Thank you, sir. So
I want to start with this
morning. A little news this
morning there was an arrest.
Someone arrested, a 16 year old
for making bomb threats this
week at Broward Schools. Then
you tweeted pictures. What what
looked like weapons and it like
this series of security. Of
course, since February 14, 2018,
security is top mind with
everyone in the Broward School
District. What is happening?
What’s going on frame that for
us? Sure. And that’s a good
question. Going to thank you so
much for asking. And first thing
I want to say is that our
schools are safe. Our security
team as our Rose Guardian, our
monitors, it is such a great job
every day to make sure our
schools secure and for our kids
to learn. So I want to say thank
you to our great staff and they
do a great job. Things we’ve
been seeing between threats. And
the reason why I was compelled
to even tweet those pictures are
get those alerts every single
day whether it be toys we’ve had
situation with real weapons on
to our school campuses. It’s
bothersome. So as a school board
member, I know that my
colleagues feel same way, not
always in upsetting. It gets us
angry, but it really saddens us
especially with the threats. We
want to make sure that those
things that they’re not it’s not
a joke. We want to make sure
that kids know that it may seem
like a joke that you’re going to
doing a threat to cause havoc
and cause. But we take those
things serious. We’re going to
take care of those situations as
to be. So let me ask you about
this sort of like a little
backlash to backpack idea, clear
backpacks mandated as of next
school year, certainly no, we
were just talking to here in the
studio. No security effort is
ever a bad thing. But speaking,
what does this clear backpack
really do? I mean, if someone
means harm certainly pockets and
other. Tell me what you think
clear backpacks would do for
security for sure. And I never
thought that I would be getting
backlash for trying for more
security, for pushing permit to
make our schools more secure.
You know, here in Broward
County, we meet standard for
safety. You know, I believe as a
board, we want to say we don’t
want to meet the standard. We
want set the standard. I believe
we’re going to push to not only
just being a safe district in
Florida. We want to be the
safest district in the country.
You know, so what do we have to
do so when it comes clear
backpacks. I understand a lot of
people feel that’s a false
safety measure. But for us, it’s
a layer that’s just a layer that
many things that we’re trying to
push to make our district safer.
And I’m going to use an example.
We saw this two weeks ago in
Channel ten, reported this that
the situation at bother put a
gun, a loaded weapon inside as
elementary school students
backpack, his son’s backpack and
a son made it to school, had no
knowledge that the gun was in
the backpack. So I just used
that situation to ask when comes
to clear backpacks because would
the father do the same thing if
it was a clear backpack? I that
he would think twice. So if it’s
just situation that I could
prevent of weapon getting onto a
school campus, I’m all about it.
But for me it’s a lot of people
are getting the wrong idea
thinking seeing clear backpacks
and thinking that’s the thing
that we’re going to do. Know
just a layer of multiple
conversation that we want to
have, how we’re going to secure
schools. Yeah, understood. I
Wanted to ask you, Dan Fotolia,
about you were with the governor
this week. So was I when he
signed this whole slate of
education bills into law. Some
of those were actually
bipartisan supported bills comes
with things like a teacher’s
bill rights, giving teachers a
bit more and discipline in their
classroom, attention to
eliminating social media during
class. Some of them were not so
bipartisan. And one of those was
a that’s labeled pay tech pay
check protection. But it’s
really about putting rules and
mandates on teachers unions and
you were fully supportive of
that. I wanted to sort of get
your opinion on that because in
our next segment, we’re going to
have someone from the State
Teachers Union also about the
lawsuit filed against it. So
what is it about what some are
calling a union bill that is
favorable? You Yeah. I mean,
well, for us and, I think that
the governor signed that. Of
course I’m not a state
legislator. They’re in support
of the governor, of course. But
you know, term limits. I was
glad to get that marker when he
signed that because I’m in
support of that but when it came
that bill it’s just really
teacher empowerment when you
have have had the decision to be
able to take money out of your
check into, have that. And he
spoke about that that day about
talking about feeling pressured
into to that. But just having
that choice is something that
they’re giving the teachers back
, giving more empowerment to our
teachers. How is the district
we’ve had the union president
and if Fusco been on this
program, how is the between the
union Broward and your in your
board how would you characterize
I can speak myself personally. I
get along with President Bush go
really well and for me it’s
always having and being open to
listen we always have to
remember regardless of whether
it be union school board staff,
we’re all on the same team here.
We all have the end goal of
making sure that our have a safe
environment, a good education.
And it’s important to have a
good relationship. So For me and
President Bush go I’m open to
listen to her. We Have a good
relationship. But feel like what
pressures all the time they want
you know, they want school
boards and unions to battle and
I don’t think that’s healthy for
the students. By the end of the
day. And I believe we have a
healthy relationship. But we
should build on that to make it
better. I wanted to in the short
time we have together, ask you
about the for a superintendent
there were 26 people that
applied 15 qualified at least
one back off of it’s kind of a
drama. Way too much a detailed
drama to get into the short time
we have together. So I’m just
going to lay give us an update.
Yeah. We’re going to be getting
this week in and what happens in
the school board. That’s not
drama. Glenna. I feel like the
most everything feels a drama.
But for us I’ve made my point
very clear in Broward we’ve been
doing whole thing and we don’t
want a superintendent we want
the superintendent and that’s
why we open up that search, make
more people we knew more people
weren’t really applied for the
job. So we opened it up and we
believe that Broward is a great
place to be. You know, it’s been
a lot of controversy a lot of
pressure here on our board. This
is a great district. We have the
best students, the best staff,
you know, and it’s just is the
best place to be in. Think it’s
so to hear. And the devil is
always in those details. Dan
unfortunately. Always great to
talk to you so much. Thank you,