Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 officials are looking to hire a new director of campus safety. Randy Braverman, the district’s former safety director, retired in July. His salary was $102,344. Currently, the district is in the processing of reviewing applicants to replace him.
Hired in April 2013, Braverman, a former police officer, was responsible for implementing, and training staff and teachers, in emergency procedures. One of Braverman’s main focal points during his tenure at OPRF was what he called “access control.”
During a Wednesday Journal interview a few months after he was hired, Braverman said that, across the world, “Schools have to control access because we need to know who’s in our building, and making sure that people who are in our building are supposed to be here. And if we have an emergency, we have to know who’s in our building because we have to account for it.”
In his four years as director, Braverman oversaw the installation of new glass doors at the high school’s Welcome Center, which serves as a central access point for all visitors.
While the district looks for Braverman’s replacement, Rich Perna, a retired OPRF dean, will act as the interim safety director on a contractual basis. District officials couldn’t immediately verify Perna’s pay by the print deadline.
Perna will temporarily oversee a campus safety staff that just went through extensive professional development.
Karin Sullivan, the district’s communications director, said that the training “was related to our efforts to continue to support a positive and welcoming learning environment.
“We want to ensure that our professional development model includes the support staff, not just our faculty and administration, and this was part of that effort,” she said.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com
