JacCenDel School Corp. is making building and policy changes so students will be safer. A report was presented at the recent school board meeting after a committee researched surrounding schools, various websites and school policies about their safety plans.
Supt. Dr. Leanne Phillipe acknowledged this is in part a reaction to the Sandy Hook school shooting in December, but it was something that needs to be done. “You don’t want to do a knee jerk reaction, but the bottom-line, especially in the elementary, we did not have a good safe situation. In the future we will be looking at more drastic things with the facilities.”
One area of concern is the morning and afternoon drop off and pick up.
On average, they have nine parents a day in the building in the morning, and that gives open access. “That’s one reason we’ll meet them at the back and front door,” she said. There will be a staff member at the back door, and if a parent or guardian does come in, they have to sign in and out. A person will radio the front office. Parents for preschoolers will need to sign in the office upon arrival and departure.
They also will limit the freedom to spontaneously come in and have lunch with their child. The office will need 48 hour notice.
“We never wanted to discourage that, but the bottom-line is we just can’t open up every kid to that exposure so that a parent can enjoy a lunch with their child. It’s sad, but true,” Dr. Phillipe said. Another safety precaution: emergency flip charts will hang at each classroom for easy access. While the corporation already practices tornado and fire drills, they are going to enact different scenerios. “Especially in the elementary, we’ll make it more situational, we did some of that before where we might take a kid a block a hallway. We’re going to do more of these situational ones,” the superintendent said.
The corporation has already established safe shelters with churches and other places should they need them.
There are some other security building ideas that need funding, such as improved surveillance cameras and keyless entries that will take more time and revenue to institute. School resource officers are also being considered, but the superintendent is not confident the state will give their small corporation $50,000 as has been proposed. Most schools in the county have or plan to have a school resource officer.
