CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Even though Brian Schultz is no longer teaching in a classroom, the lifelong educator still gets the opportunity to walk the halls of schools in Mecklenburg County.
“I get to go see all the schools and see the students and the great things that happen between the students and staff,” Schultz said. “So that’s the fun part of it.”
Since becoming the chief operations officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in 2021, Schultz has been busy.
“We’ve dealt with supply chain, staffing issues, obviously had a proliferation of weapons and things like that we’ve dealt with,” Schultz said. “It’s been challenging.”
The 2021-22 school year brought a challenge unlike anything the district had experienced before, when more than 30 guns were found on CMS campuses.
Schultz said that pushed CMS leaders to take steps to curb guns coming into schools.
“I want the best for the students the same way I want the best for my own children,” he said. “And so if I wouldn’t feel that my students or my own children are safe at the school, then I take that same kind of urgency with me on the job to make sure that any student is safe in school.”
The district has invested in state-of-the-art security systems with multiview cameras in schools.
Schultz says CMS also became the first district in the state to install Evolv body scanners in each high school, and eventually in middle and K-8 schools.
The results were seen almost immediately.
In the 2021-22 school year, CMS says more than 30 guns were found on campuses.
In 2022-23, Schultz says they found seven.
It has transformed the district into a model in school security.
“We’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-plus school districts from around the country that have actually come to see in person, to see these systems working,” he said. “Because they know of the success that we’ve had in keeping our students safe and keeping our staff safe.”
Schultz says the cost for the Evolv body scanners is about $75 per student per year.
He says the district has received $2.8 million in grant funding for emergency response kits for every classroom.