Broward County school board members were in workshop discussion on Tuesday to determine ways to slim down their annual budget amid declining student enrollment.
It’s something that’s easier said than done.
Some of the proposals included reducing overtime, adjusting high school class schedules and reducing staff through attrition.
They also identified areas where costs are high and on the rise, like employee healthcare benefits, and the rising cost of outsourcing school safety to municipal law enforcement.
The school board instead discussed expanding Broward Schools’ own police department to level out what the superintendent called a cost that’s ballooning out of control.
“A discussion with the board to expand our police department so we can actually service our schools ourselves and be able to manage our own costs more appropriately than depending on contracts from our municipality partners,” said Hepburn.
There will be a future workshop with schoolboard members to discuss expanding the school district’s police department.
Another cost cutting endeavor is emptying out the Kathleen C. Wright Administration Center, located in a prime downtown Fort Lauderdale location, and moving staff onto school sites while leasing levels of the building to outside businesses as a way to generate revenue.
