Miami-Dade County’s 389 public schools opened their doors Monday morning to welcome about 350,000 students for the first day of the new school year.
And at each school, a sworn police officer was there to greet them.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Monday morning that employee attendance was higher than usual and that had not heard of a single issue regarding police deployment across the district. Operations at high schools, the first to open, were very smooth, he said.
School district officials spent the summer hiring officers and working with 34 municipalities to iron out agreements to staff officers in schools, required under a new state law to staff a safe school officer at every school. Some agreements were signed as recently as the end of last week.
“I hope with this announcement today we can put parents’ minds at ease,” said schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Friday before signing a $20 million agreement with the county to staff officers at schools in unincorporated Miami-Dade. “Shifting now the focus from safety and security concerns to school supplies, crisp uniforms, crayons and the teachings of respect, responsibility and good behavior on the first day.”
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
