Back-to-school countdown: Here is how Fort Lauderdale High prepares

At Fort Lauderdale High School, dozens of teachers in bright tie-dye T-Shirts were preparing on Monday to welcome back more than 2,000 students to their classroom desks on Tuesday.

Erin Brown, who has been the school’s principal for about four years, has nearly two decades of experience in education. She said there is always plenty to do to prepare for the first day of school.

“It’s busy! That’s for sure,” said Brown, whose career began as a teacher and coach at Flanagan High School.

Teachers received training on the new emergency code protocols. Broward County Public Schools, the sixth-largest school district in the nation, replaced the color code for action words “HOLD,” “SECURE,” “LOCKDOWN,” “EVACUATE” and “SHELTER.”

Teachers prepare classrooms at Fort Lauderdale High School in preparation for the first 2022-23 school year on Tuesday in Broward County Public School.

“We use all of the time that you know, we are given to make sure everything is perfect and 100% ready to go for tomorrow,” Brown said.

In the hallways, teachers used carts to deliver new textbooks to their classrooms. District records show the school has had “A” grades every year since 2012, except for 2016 when the school received a “B” grade.

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