>>Welcome back.
Vickie Cartwright was recently given the post
of Broward school superintendent,
a position she held on an interim basis since August.
We talk about school safety,
but I began the conversation with her
about her goals for the district.
>>So my main goals for the objective right now,
for the school district,
is really leading us forward,
is really taking us where we are today,
building upon the areas of success that we already have,
and then looking at those areas of opportunity
in order to make sure that we are
laser-like focusing in on that right now.
In order to do that,
some of the things that we're doing right away
is we are going to be refreshing our strategic plan.
So here, in the very near future,
we're gonna be going out to get our community feedback,
with our school board members as well,
in order for us to design out our strategic goals
as well as our guardrails.
And so this is one of the ways in which we can make sure
that we have that laser focus as we proceed forward.
In the interim,
continuing to make sure that we are remaining focused
on our student outcomes,
in other words, how are our students doing,
making sure that we're addressing
some of those academic areas,
because the COVID slide is a reality
and across this entire nation,
and we're not exempt from that,
but also ensuring that we're taking care of the whole child.
So we have a lot of mental health issues that we're seeing.
We're seeing some extreme behaviors as well
that we hadn't previously seen.
And so we're really focused in on that,
because in order to address the academics,
we have to make sure that we're providing
that safe and secure environment
where students feel comfortable coming to school
and interacting with their teachers.
So having that strong relationship-building
that we're working intentionally on right now
to make sure that,
again, we're taking care of the needs of the whole child
and not just the academic needs.
>>You're now leading a district
that is still suffering the after-effects
of what happened at Stoneman Douglas.
And I think one of the things that came out of that,
which led to Robert Runcie being removed
and leaving the district,
was a lack of trust in him,
in part because I think that
information that came out during his tenure
ended up showing that he wasn't always honest
and straightforward,
whether it was being deceptive about the PROMISE Program,
whether it was any number of things,
that there was a lack of candor.
From your perspective,
what commitment, what guarantees can you give to the public
that you will be honest, transparent with them,
giving them information,
whether it's good, bad, or otherwise,
however it reflects on the school district?
I mean, that is an important part of it,
that you have to be honest with the public.
Otherwise, you'll lose that trust
that you need to rebuild now.
>>While I can't comment to the previous superintendent,
only because I was not a part of that relationship,
what I can say is under my leadership,
I know that security,
safety and security has been
one of the front and center things
that I have been addressing under my leadership
since I started all the way back in August.
One of the things that we are recognizing
is we want to make sure that we are transparent
with our community.
Even on prior interviews that I've done with our,
so information is flowing out to our community,
I've been very intentional
in making sure that we're being transparent.
Yes, we are having an increase
in the amount of disruptive behavior
that we're seeing at schools,
and here's what we're doing about it
in order to address this.
I know already, for example,
right now, when I go back and I take a look
at our Behavior Threat Assessments
and just doing a comparison to get a better idea
of where are we, how are we doing on that,
this year alone, we're already,
and the year's not over,
we've already exceeded what we had that very first year
that we implemented the Behavior Threat Assessments
from August 2019 to June 2020,
where we had, at that point in time, for the year,
we had 2,582 threat assessments that were completed.
But for this school year,
just through the month of February, where we are,
we've had 2,874 threat assessments.
So that is something that,
again, I'm not gonna hide from the data.
The data is the data,
but what are we doing about it, I think is important.
And how are we monitoring?
And why is that so important?
>>Earlier, I spoke to Sheriff Gualtieri,
who's the head of the MSD Commission.
I know that he's spoken to you.
He'd also told me he's looking forward
to sitting down with you again
and going through some of this issues,
'cause he talked a lot about threat assessments.
And as you're looking at the threat assessments,
there's a couple of issues that came up
in my conversations with him.
One was,
do the threat assessments that you do follow the student
if they move from one school within the district to another?
'Cause that had been an issue.
And second,
when a student either leaves Broward
or comes into the Broward School District,
are you aware if the threat assessments
that may have been done with that student
stays with that student and follows it
so that the new school,
so the new staff has some understanding,
aren't starting from ground zero?
>>You know, that's a very good question.
So Broward schools did replace
its decentralized paper-based system
with a centralized digital system
that enables the auditing of every step in that process.
We take it very seriously.
In fact, I have a team that they meet on every,
very frequently (chuckles),
and in order to go back and review
threat assessments within the district
to ensure that we have the continuity that is occurring
and that those things that need to be reported
are being reported.
And if there's something that's missing,
then this team also goes back
and works with that school site
and make sure that we make corrective actions.
By doing the decentralized process,
you know, that was problematic,
because you're right,
when a student left one campus and went to another campus,
it was very difficult to track.
Having that centralized digital system
at this point in time,
now that follows the students,
so when they go from school A to school B
within Broward County Public Schools,
all of that information is following them.
So it allows for that,
again, the continuity that we're looking for,
and we're being very, very cognizant of that.
>>I think the issue that the public and that I had
with the PROMISE Program as we learned more about it
following what happened in Parkland
was that the, quote-unquote, success rate of the program
that the previous superintendent used to cite all the time
was really built on a house of cards.
If a student had been put into the PROMISE Program,
let's say, for graffiti
or for whatever type of incident that may have occurred,
if they didn't commit that exact same offense for a year,
then they were seen,
that student was seen as being a success
within the PROMISE Program.
They could have committed other incidents.
They could have committed other types of crimes,
and that would not have counted
against what they were doing within the PROMISE Program.
And I think when you realize that,
that's when you,
I understood that the district was, at the time,
playing a lot of games and trying to mislead the public
about what a great program it was when it really wasn't.
What steps are you taking to make sure
that isn't occurring again?
>>So that's a very good point.
And those are conversations that we do still have to have,
as to what are our measuring techniques.
In other words, how are we actually measuring success,
and what are those outcomes,
and what does that look like?
So to answer your question,
I don't have the answer on that just yet,
but it is something that we are going to be reviewing,
is how are we measuring success,
because those have to be very intentional,
because, and we also have to explain,
openly and transparently,
what those measures are.
So that way, it leads to that transparency
that we need to have.
>>I guess, more broadly,
might just back it up and ask it this way.
Obviously, you weren't here when Parkland took place.
It wasn't part of...
I mean, you weren't part of the school district at the time,
but how much does the weight of Parkland fall on you?
How much do you feel the responsibility,
particularly in a district like Broward that suffered this,
of guaranteeing that something like this
doesn't happen again?
>>The weight of what happened in Parkland
is extremely heavy on my shoulders.
The loss of life is something that,
it hits, it hits my soul,
and not to mention
all those that were also injured and impacted
that are continuing to live with this on a daily basis.
That is why, and it's one of my driving forces,
to be honest with you,
as to why I take school safety so seriously.
Because we have to take a layered approach.
We understand that.
Because one way is not going to give you a hundred percent.
And even on a layered approach,
it, unfortunately, it may not give you a hundred percent,
but the goal is to make sure that you create environments
that are as safe as humanly possible.