ORLANDO, Fla. -- As we inch closer to the upcoming midterm elections, those hoping to represent your school district say school safety is one of their top priorities.
- School board chair candidates say school safety is top priority
- 4 candidates running for Orange Co. School Board Chair
- District working with Sheriff's Office, local LEOs
- School Board Chair Election is Aug. 28
"The things that are happening in education we have to change now or we will see the effects in a few years,” Mathew Fitzpatrick told a crowd of teachers, parents and students as the reason he decided to run for Orange County School Board chair.
Current Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs is also running for office and she told the same audience, "I've been asked why am I not running for a higher office? I am running for a higher office. You tell me where you can make a more positive impact than by helping our children."
Jacobs promised leadership and longstanding negotiating skills to garner Orange County School Board the recognition she says it deserves in Tallahassee.
Other candidates touted experience in the school district.
"I promise to bring cooperative learning tools to this administration,” said Robert Allen Prater, an Orange County teacher running for school board chair.
"I know what's happening and what's been happening, and I want to continue to represent all of you on the school board," said Nancy Robbinson, a school board member also running for school board chair.
The candidates are all running during a time when the school board is having to make some big changes to school campuses.
Currently the district is negotiating with the Orange County Sheriff's Office and other local law enforcement agencies to fulfill Gov. Rick Scott’s new law following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which requires some sort of armed presence at each and every school.
"Our school district at this point has said we want to have a law enforcement officer at each school, and we don't want to arm teachers. Given those directives, we are working with them to meet the mandates of the law," said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings.
Those negotiations could come with a hefty price tag, which the newly-elected school board chair will have to deal with moving into 2019.
Both Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and School Boardmember Nancy Robinson have been involved in these safety negotiations.
"We need to continue to look at a holistic approach to make sure that our schools are hardened, and making sure that there is an emergency plan within every school, and there's other technology that we can use to screen for weapons," Jacobs said.
"We had a needs assessment done by an outside auditor that came into all of our schools, and we've been slowly implementing suggestions of that audit with lots of updated security measures to our facilities," Robbinson said.