School Superintendent speaks to the Levy County School Board Tuesday. The board attorney advised him not to answer questions about the school safety coordinator.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
The hiring of the security chief for Levy County public schools was done largely behind closed doors last year. There was no public discussion about who should hold the position.
School Superintendent Jeff Edison appointed Dennis Webber as his coordinator of school safety without advertising for applicants. He placed Webber’s appointment on the May 22, 2018, consent agenda.
Webber, who earns $77,000 annually as the school safety coordinator, was approved by the school board without discussion.
Spotlight Founder Linda Cooper asked Edison and the school board Tuesday why Webber was appointed to one of the most sensitive positions in the school district- protecting the lives of thousands of public school children and staff – without the matter being discussed publicly.
“I have three questions concerning the process the school board used to hire the Coordinator of School Safety,” Cooper said.
“Why was this position not advertised to find the best candidate? Records I have obtained indicate that the job for the Coordinator was not advertised to the public or internally. For that reason there were no other applicants for the job. Dennis Webber was placed in the position by Superintendent Jeff Edison.
“Is it policy to appoint someone to a position with no résumé, no application, no background check or discussion by the board? There was no public discussion by the school board at the time of his appointment on May 22, 2018, because this was done through the consent agenda.
“Why was there no input from local law enforcement when crafting the job description? The job description appears to be written for a school principal rather than a Coordinator of School Safety. I certainly would have been looking in the direction of ex-military, deputies or other high level law enforcement rather than something along the lines of a school principal.
School Board attorney Delaney advised the school board and Edison not to answer the questions in the meeting.
“What I’m advising the board is the public comment period is when the public brings information to the board. We can direct someone to get back to the questions, research the questions; It’s a time to receive information rather than getting in a back and forth,” Delaney said.
Damien Kelly, executive director of the state Office of Safe Schools announced in a July 20, 2018, letter that the Florida Legislature was requiring school superintendents to designate a “school safety specialist” following the Feb. 14, 2018, Parkland, Fla. massacre of 17 students and faculty. The person designated for the position must earn a “certificate of completion” in state training.
The law does not list qualifications for the school safety specialist other than the designee must be a district-employed school administrator who is appointed by the superintendent, Kelly wrote.
Kelly’s letter opens the door for superintendents to choose a school-based administrator with security credentials, or they can do as Edison did and choose someone who is a strictly a school administrator.
District staff said Webber has completed the state-mandated training program but staff couldn’t find a current résumé for Webber despite the former school principal having 30 years of employment in the Levy County School District. That indicates Edison had no current résumé to use when he selected Webber for the position.
Sheriff Bobby McCallum said he wasn’t consulted about Webber or asked who should hold the position. He said the school safety specialist is a school administrative position and he knew he wouldn’t have input any more than the school board could tell him who to hire as school resource officers.
But McCallum said he knew what Spotlight was asking him.
Why wasn’t the county’s chief law enforcement officer asked for input on who should be appointed as the school safety specialist to protect the county’s public school students and faculty?
“We didn’t have input into who was chosen,” McCallum said.
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School Board of Levy County Regular Meeting June 11, 2019; Posted June 12, 2019
