Q&A With Brevard Public Schools District Security Leader Lt. Mike Scully
By edConnect, Brevard Public Schools // August 10, 2015
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Brevard Public Schools and District Security is led by Lt. Mike Scully, who works for BPS through a contract with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
A portion of the funds derived from the half-cent sales surtax will be spent to improve security on all of the district school campuses.
edConnect sat down with Scully to learn more about the department’s goals and accomplishments.
edConnect: What are some of your department’s goals?
Lt. Scully: The mission of this department is to enhance the overall security and safety of our schools.
That may be walking the campus to identify security concerns, meeting with campus based administrators to discuss solutions to security concerns, training school personnel in crisis response, implementing emergency response protocols, handling visitor management, as well as policy reviews and rewrites.
So many different things need attention. All of these projects are living, breathing actions that require constant attention. We have a lot of work to get done.
edConnect: Describe a few of these projects.
Lt. Scully: The most important initiative is the consolidation of critical response procedures.
We are working right now to develop a new emergency crash card. Five or six simple steps for support staff, administrators, or teachers to use in any critical situation to insure the security of our students.
Other projects include the installation of additional visitor check-in kiosks where traffic dictates the need for multiple kiosks and the installation of new kiosks at the Head Start facilities, the alternative learning school, Clearlake Education Center and the Brevard Adult Education centers.
We are in the process of re-badging all district personnel with bar code badges so access control doors can be badge activated.
edConnect: What is being done with the sales surtax revenue that is designated for security?
Lt. Scully: The department project manager is in the process of walking each campus in the district with school administrators to identify security related concerns.
Each school will have a unique plan to meet the needs of that campus. Enhancements may include fencing, video cameras, access control systems, and procedural changes.
We won’t be able to fund everything right away, but each school will have a copy of the plan so if funding becomes available, projects are already prioritized by need.
edConnect: What is a typical day like for you?
Lt. Scully: My primary role is to be a source of information and provide guidance to direct situations to resolutions. The amount of time spent on a situation depends on the level of support we are asked to provide by our municipal law enforcement partners.
Planning projects, setting timelines, identifying the scope of work as we work towards new initiatives are all a part of my day.
edConnect: How many folks work for you?
Lt. Scully: In addition to my assistant, Hannah Carpenter, we have four staff members who handle district security, fingerprinting of volunteers, employees, and community members, and processing badges and other requests. All volunteer requests come through this department as well.
Additionally, 28 school resource officers (SROs) are funded through a state Safe School program. One SRO is at each of our secondary schools and Cape View Elementary has an SRO funded by the City of Cape
Canaveral.
These officers are all employees of various municipal law enforcement agencies and return to these agencies during the school breaks.
I have an amazing team of people who were here when I got here. I can’t say enough about their dedication and commitment.
