• Slides presented by Dr. Adams, Superintendent of the Hempfield School District. • Acknowledgement – no topic more important to the people present for the meeting than the safety and security of our students and the people who work with them in our schools. 1
• Much of the information presented in these slides is intended to answer at least some of the more general questions the district fielded leading up to this evening’s meeting. • Dr. Adams asked that as everyone interacts with one another around the sensitive issues to be discussed this evening, we do so with respect and civility, operating with the assumption that we all have good intentions, and that we all hold the safety of our students and the adults working with them as our primary concern. 2
• District personnel assisting this evening: • Central Office – Dr. Chris Adams, Mr. Mike Bromirski, Mr. Dan Forry, Mrs. ShannonZimmerman, Ms. Drue Feilmeier • Principals – Mr. Jim Dague, Dr. Mark Reinhardt, Dr. Jodi Harrington, Dr. Beth Becker, Mr. Bill Brossman, Mr. Doug Dandridge, Mrs. Trisha Pearson, Mr. Ian Daecher • School Psychologists – Mrs. Sue Fritz, Mrs. Kris Strohm, Mr. Greg DiStefano • School Counseling Supervisor Mrs. Melissa Boas, school counselor Mrs. Amy Koerner, and school social worker Dr. Candice Highfield • From the local law enforcement community • Mr. Steve Skiles, EHTPD Police Chief • Mr. Mark Pugliese, WHTPD Police Chief • Mr. Tom Rudzinski, MTPD Police Chief • Ms. Tammy Marsh, EHTPD Police Lieutenant • From Quest Behavior Health Service – Dr. Melissa Brown, Dr. Mark Johnson, and Ms. Christine Kotlarski • Thanks to the following HSD School Board members for attending: Board President Mr. Bill Otto, Board Vice President Mr. Adam Aloisi, and Mr. Mike Donato, Mrs. Linda Johnston, Mr. Jim Maurer, and Mr Charles Merris 3
• Please see the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for information regarding legal limitations on the sharing of information regarding individual students (https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html) 4
• District Safety & Security Committee – • Committee comprised of internal stakeholders from across the district • Considers recommendations made by the law enforcement • Considers suggestions about safety and security coming from a variety of sources Reviews current structures, practices, and procedures and makes • recommendations to administration and the board Assists with the vetting of professional development and training provided to staff • and students We maintain a district All-Hazards Plan that is revisited at annually and again following • critical incidents, when we review specific aspects of the plan related to critical incidents from which we might learn, such as the Florida shooting District personnel who work with our principals and other leaders, spearheading work • focused on promoting the safety of our schools: Chief Operating Officer, District Safety & Security Officer, HHS School Resource • Officer (SRO), HHS Safety & Security Officer Close working relationships with local law enforcement and emergency management • services – we are grateful for these relationships • We maintain agreements with community organizations to access shelter locations when there is a need to evacuate a school that cannot be accommodated in other district facilities. 5
• Building visitor procedures have been tightened up considerably in recent years. • School Gate Guardian software that logs visitors and retrieves data from multiple databases - helps with decisions about who to admit to our schools. • Surveillance camera systems in our buildings and on buses that are evaluated regularly and have been significantly upgraded over time. • Professional development for staff related to things such like the ALICE Response Procedures (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) and steps to be taken in more general critical incident scenarios like severe weather events. L earning experiences for students that include fire and safety drills - drill schedule • is reviewed/adjusted as we learn from the law enforcement community. • Open invitation to our police partners to visit/walk our buildings and interact with students and staff. We believe this to be critical to the promotion of healthy relationships between the school and law enforcement communities – we want students to grow up seeing officers as resources, not as someone to fear. • District Comprehensive Plan that includes a focus on addressing students’ social/emotional health, which ties closely to maintaining safe, secure school environments – (tiered system of supports, school-wide positive behavior plans, anti-bullying initiatives and protocols for handling complaints, etc.) 6
• Our work to strengthen the safety/security measures at HSD are ongoing – we focus on reflective practice and continuous improvement in all that we do. • Outside consultant performed a district-wide security audit in 2013 – we revisit that document periodically to determine where we’ve made progress with our safety and security efforts, and to determine where needs still exist with respect to physical and procedural security measures. • We collaborate with colleagues across Lancaster and Lebanon as part of the IU13 consortium and will participate on 3/15 in a focus group meeting that will look at new learning and recommendations related to run-hide-fight concepts (i.e. systems like ALICE), dealing with anonymous threats, and more. • The district safety and security committee meets regularly to review plans and procedures, consider new intelligence and suggestions from the law enforcement community, and recommend changes to our practices based on evolved thinking by experts in the field. • Please understand - as we consider recommendations from safety/security experts and review our procedures, things our building visitors have are used to may change. Please be patient with us - changes made are intended to make our schools safer for students, staff, and others in our buildings. 7
• From our perspective and what can be seen in safety and security research, the most important piece of the safety and security “puzzle” is gaining access to intelligence before someone makes the decision to commit a harmful act. • Receiving tips and information in advance of anything happening allows us to investigate and take proactive steps to prevent harm from occurring. • If something is happening at school that concerns you or your child, please reach out and share the concern with the school administration • If something happens outside of the school day, please contact the police. • If you are not aware, you always have the option to report a concern via the 411 Tipline, which is discussed on a later slide. 8
• If we field a concern at school, school administrators commence an investigation - if it’s reported, we investigate it! • If during the investigation we believe laws may have been broken in addition to school rules or policies, we will involve the police. • If the police are notified, the school and police departments run their own investigations, sharing information as appropriate. • During investigations, we are looking for specific details (time, location, individuals involved) - investigations take more time in the absence of specific info • Administrators communicate frequently with the police to determine credibility of tips/leads and to discuss investigative and communication steps to be taken • A Faculty Hold is used for a variety of circumstances such as clearing the halls during medical emergencies, to maintain privacy of individuals involved in investigations, and so forth. A Faculty Hold basically means remain where you are until further notice – there is no imminent threat of danger. • If we believe there is an internal or external threat of harm to students/staff, we initiate a lockdown. • School actions taken are based upon board policy, the Student Code of Conduct, and federal/state regulations by which school must abide (such as IDEA). Police actions are based on the criminal code, consultation with DA, etc. 9
• As a district, we work very intentionally to develop and send messages to multiple stakeholders to keep people informed. • When parallel investigations are occurring, we coordinate with the local police departments on messaging to make sure information shared is clear and consistent to avoid confusing the public. • In these situations, the school must be careful to understand what level of detail we are permitted to share without compromising a police investigation. • We focus on providing clear and accurate information before releasing to the public – while we understand that people want details and they want them immediately, we are committed to providing information as timely as we can, making sure that whatever message we release is accurate and does not contribute to the rumor mill. • We make use of multiple communications channels, understanding that no one method of communicating works best for all. These include: • The Mobile App, district and building websites (4:00 p.m. Emails), Facebook, and Twitter • Please contact Communications Director Shannon Zimmerman if you have questions about how to access these communication channels 10
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