Next school year, students could see more police officers in their buildings, more cameras monitoring the hallways and added security features, such as bulletproof glass and new locks.
Those items are all on the wish lists of local school officials who are looking for the best ways to protect students, especially in light of recent school shootings across the nation.
The state is continuing to offer grants to schools for security and safety measures, and local school officials plan to apply for that money once again.
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Top priorities: school resource officers that can help patrol school buildings, build relationships with students and be on alert for any concerns, along with new equipment or building modifications.
But school officials also want to be mindful to keep their building as an educational facility, and not a lockdown center, and that not every new piece of equipment or technology is worth the cost.
“There are things out there that may or may not be the best practice,” Greenwood Schools Superintendent Kent DeKoninck said.
For example, he had seen bomb shelters that can be installed in the classroom and fit up to 30 students. While that would protect students, he questions if that is feasible in the classroom or if it’s even the best practice, he said.
“We want our kids and adults in the buildings in the safest position. But you have to ask yourself: what is the best investment,” DeKoninck said.
In the last several years, local schools have spent millions upgrading the security of their buildings, including remodeling entrances so visitors must check in at the office before entering the rest of the building and installing cameras that monitor those entrances and other areas throughout the school buildings.
Officers as mentors
Each year, the state offers grants of up to $50,000 to help pay for school safety and security expenses, and for several local schools, the goal is to put that money toward school resource officers who help patrol school buildings.
Years ago, the Greenwood Police Department would assign two of its officers to patrol schools, but as they have become busier with more calls, more people and more traffic in the city, that wasn’t able to happen anymore, DeKoninck said.
Now, the school district is looking to apply for a grant that would cover half the cost of an officer to be at the schools 35 to 40 hours a week, he said.
His hope is for that officer to be patrolling schools, but also ready to go to any building at a moment’s notice, he said. In addition, the officer could quickly respond to any issue that comes up.
But he also sees the officer’s role as building relationships with students so they feel comfortable coming to them with any concerns, he said.
Franklin schools have officers walking the hallways on occasion, and a permanent school resource officer will be on site at the start of the next school year, with the eventual goal of having one officer for elementary, middle school and high school students, Superintendent David Clendening said.
Clark-Pleasant is in the third year of its school resource officer program, with officers at the high school and middle school and elsewhere as needed, said Tyler Croy, school resource officer.
A big focus of that program has been to build relationships, so that students feel comfortable talking to the officers and telling them about any concerns or issues they hear about, instead of viewing it as snitching or tattling. They want officers to be visible and present, but not intimidating, Clark-Pleasant Superintendent Patrick Spray said.
The officers see themselves as a mentor first, and a police officer second. That means talking to students about their day, giving them a high-five or sitting with them at lunch. They want students to know they are not looking for ways to get them in trouble, he said.
By doing that over time, you gain students’ trust, Croy said.
“When you create relationships with the kids, they are more inclined to come to you,” Croy said.
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Schools does not currently have a resource officer program, but it is at the top of officials’ list of items to consider, Superintendent Tim Edsell said.
Trafalgar police are a half-mile away and work well with police, including sharing a radio so police can hear what is going on in the schools, Edsell said. But a school resource officer would be inside the schools at all times, and that is something officials want to consider.
Officials are also hoping the state will decide to put more funding into that program to help schools afford those costs, Edsell said.
“I hope the legislators will see we need more money,” Edsell said.
Central Nine Career Center also does not have a resource officer, but plans to apply for a grant due to the growth in enrollment and changes in what schools across the nation are facing, assistant director Mike Quaranta said.
High cost of building features
A big focus of schools in recent years has been to spend grant money and tax dollars to update the entrances to their buildings, so any visitors must check in at the office before going into the rest of the school.
Center Grove schools recently did security upgrades to its buildings as part of an overall $40 million project to update school buildings. The school district is also the only one locally with its own police force, which includes four officers, including one assigned full-time at the high school.
At Central Nine, visitors have to scan their identification and print a visitor pass before they ever get into the building. But once they are in, the building is mostly open, and that is something officials are looking to address by modifying the entrance so visitors go into an office area before they have access to the building, Quaranta said.
At Franklin schools, visitors use a button to buzz into each office, and staff members can see them through a camera before letting them inside. But years ago, when several of the schools were built such as Northwood Elementary School, safety and security were not nearly the concern they are now, so those modifications had to be made later, Clendening said.
“They never thought it would be needed, it was not designed that way,” he said.
Now, when new schools are built, such as the new Greenwood Middle School, safety and security are a big focus. For example, when visitors come to events at the middle school, such as games in the evenings, the building is designed so they are in one area and don’t have access to the rest of the middle school, he said. Visitors park in a certain lot, go in through a specific door and stay in the area where the event is, he said.
The school also has about 100 cameras, which are all over the school, and the building was designed with sight lines in mind so that cameras and staff can see larger areas of the school. School officials use those cameras daily, such as for incidents with students where officials need to see what happened or check the story they are being told, he said.
In the last five years, upgrading buildings with secure entrances, upgrading and replacing interior and exterior cameras and creating internal plans for crisis situations have been a focus at Indian Creek schools, assistant superintendent Andy Cline said.
One option officials are considering is bulletproof glass that could be installed at school offices and other windows on their buildings, which use a material that could not be broken from the outside, but could be broken from the inside if needed, Cline said. They also want to do an update on their announcement system that would tie all the school buildings together for emergency messages, such as for severe weather, he said.
In the next two years, Clark-Pleasant school officials want to upgrade their door lock systems and their cameras, and are planning on investing $500,000 from savings in those projects, Spray said.
One upgrade they want are cameras with better quality, and to add them in more locations that have better views of school buildings. They are also looking at whether they can share the video with police, which is something other schools do, Spray said.
At Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools, police can access camera views from inside their vehicles, so they can see what they are facing when they are called to an issue at one of the schools, Cline said.
More than 110 cameras are mounted in and around the schools, including some with a panoramic zoom and others activated by motion sensors, Cline said. Officials have a drawing showing where all those cameras are, and deciding the placement is based on multiple factors, including visibility and how highly trafficked an area is, he said.
And deciding if cameras need to be moved or added is an ongoing discussion, he said.
Every year or two, local police, emergency management and fire departments are invited into Indian Creek schools to do a threat assessment, where they look at their buildings for anything that could pose a problem in an emergency, such as blind spots or communication issues, and that is being done again this summer, Cline said.
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Here is a look at some of the security improvements local schools are considering:
Central Nine Career Center: More secure entrance, school resource officer
Clark-Pleasant: New cameras, lock system
Franklin: School resource officer to be added next year, and expanded in future years
Greenwood: School resource officers
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson: Bulletproof glass, connected announcement system and possibly resource officers
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