Yours, Mine and Ours

School Security is everyone's concern.

In light of the events of the past week everyone's awareness is heightened. Just in the past week we have had a number of incidents involving individuals who have been found on school campus. All these people turned out to have legitimate business with school, but had failed to check in at the main office. The administrative team truly appreciates the staff who phoned the main office with their concerns and their location.

Obviously, I want everyone to continue to cry wolf every time. Every false alarm is worth the wear and tear on the soles of my shoes on the chance it saves one individual soul.

Thank you to everyone for their excellent job during our recent Lockdown Drill. We were able to identify some areas we need to rethink and rework. An example for me was  how do substitutes relay information without computer access. We have already put a new plan in place for this type of situation. Please make sure your room is equipped with both red and green papers in case we lose computer access in an emergency. If you do not have these sheets please let me know and I will get them to you bright and early in the new year. We have also received input from staff, students and parents with thoughts about our policies and procedures.

The administration team continues to evaluate and make changes to our safety procedures on an ongoing basis and to that end we will be having a lockdown drills about once a month. The goal is to have the lockdown drill procedures become second nature to our staff and students without their importance being dulled.

Please continue to do all those little things we already do as second nature like...

1. Making sure all students have passes when traveling in the building,

2. Having all visitors sign-in at the main office before being dealt with in our shops not open to the public. We will gladly call for a student escort for these individuals, call and tell you they are coming and direct them around the back of the building to your shop door or take a message for you if you so wish.

3. Staying hyper-vigilant. A heighten awareness is the unfortunate way of the world in which we live today. If you find someone on the campus you are unfamiliar with please ask who they are or call a member of the administrative team so that we can identify them.

School security is  your business, my business and above all our business.

Please enjoy your vacation and your time with friends and family. They are reason for everything else we do in this world.

Mark