Brevard School Board hopes audit will clarify school discipline debate
The Brevard County School Board once again struggled to make sense of its discipline problem this week, opting for an external audit it hopes will provide clarity on the scope of the issue and help chart a clear path forward.
Board members at a work session Tuesday revived a previously planned review of student behavior and the school district's response efforts by its independent auditing firm, RSM US. That plan was first conceived, and then shelved during the pandemic.
Interim Superintendent Robert Schiller said the audit would provide a clear "baseline" of school discipline in Brevard amid a crisis that so far has been largely defined by anecdotes and second-hand reports.
"We need to get to the bottom of it by an independent auditor, and therefore our perceptions may then be moderated by the reality of data," Schiller told the Board, at his first meeting as temporary head of Brevard Public Schools.
Before the meeting:BPS will discuss possible discipline changes with panel of teachers, parents and others
Previously:Discipline stirs passions at Brevard School Board meeting but few concrete actions
Uncertainty has swirled around the discipline debate since it shot into the public eye in November, driven by troubling reports of violence against school staff and controversy over a video in which Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey, standing in front of the county jail, promised to be misbehaving students' "worst nightmare."
Teachers union officials blamed administrators at a Dec. 8 special meeting, while an administrators union rep blamed district leaders. Repeated allegations that schools weren't enforcing discipline ran up against data from the Florida Department of Education showing BPS among the highest in the state for suspensions and expulsions.
Critics have meanwhile pointed out that most perpetrators of physical violence in the classroom are young children and students with disabilities.
The complications and the contradictory claims have only added to the problem's apparent intractability; despite several lengthy meetings, the School Board has made little progress tackling the problem.
Schiller said Tuesday in diplomatic but certain terms that the board was part of the problem. There was a "disconnect" emerging between what board members have so far wanted on the discipline issue and what schools are allowed to do under state and federal laws, he said.
He urged the board to take ownership of the district's administrative procedures — something he said was common in other school districts but the Brevard School Board has typically left to the superintendent — which provide guidance on how to implement board policies within the bounds of the law.
A lack of robust guidelines has left principals to interpret both the policy and the law, Schiller said, which he said has led to inconsistent application of discipline and inadequate training for teachers on how to handle problem behaviors.
"We can't expect staff to administer consistently, if indeed there is a dichotomy between what this board is expecting and what's happening at the schools," Schiller told the board.
Board member Jennifer Jenkins lauded the decision to move forward with the audit Tuesday, calling the public debate so far a "circus" and media coverage of the crisis a "disaster" for BPS.
More:Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey's involvement in school discipline just latest example of overreach
"I think we've created a disaster and we owe it to our community to come to the table with actual hardcore data," Jenkins said during the meeting.
Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Conatct Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter: @EricRogersFT.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard School Board hopes audit will clarify discipline crisis
