A quick update on district-wide efforts to prioritize safety in our schools.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Time. Get on
Speaker 3 (00:04):
Up.
Speaker 4 (00:07):
Hey, welcome back to the 2223 school year, Mr. Loomis. Uh, you're back from, uh, Houston.
Speaker 5 (00:13):
Yeah, well, the Woodlands. Yeah. I finally got my, my 30 year, soon to be 30 year old daughter off the payroll. She's got a real job, and I'm excited. And, uh, you look a little baggy eyed having to pick Caden up at the airport last night. Yeah, he's
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Home. Yeah. He'll be home for a few days and then right back to school at Kansas State. So, go cats. Um,
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Yeah. Safe safety has to be our first priority. If, if we're not focused on safety, it, it has a tendency to slip up behind us. And so this year as we, we start out, let's, let's think about how are we hardening our campuses? How are we communicating, uh, when there are safety issues or concerns? And then how are we drilling and how are we preparing, uh, for the unthinkable?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
So, um, yeah, we, we spent a good amount of time with our principals and, um, talked about really streamlining a training protocol for all staff in A I S D. So actually during this week sometime, um, our, our principals will spend right at a half of a day with all staff members, um, on a streamlined, um, sequence and scope of, of training, um, around safety. And so we really have had, you know, every principal has done some of that as we've begun a school year, but making that something that all of our staff members have the same scope and sequence of, so to speak, was important to us. Yeah,
Speaker 5 (01:59):
I think, I think one of the things, you know, as, as we listen to staff, especially last spring, is, um, we always seem to be able to go back to fire drills because we've all lived those our entire life. And in today's world, sometimes we get complacent around those drills, and we have to remind one another. Um, the importance of it, matter of fact, that that importance comes as, as the, uh, fire department shows up once or twice a year to all of our schools and grades us on that, on that drill. And so when we think about security, active threat security drills, we've gotta get that kind of importance, um, the, the same kind of importance around active shooter or threat drills as we do around fire drills. Because in today's world, when that, when that alarm goes off, we all need to be thinking about how are we gonna keep ourselves and our kiddos safe?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
And, and how do we go through that drill? And so, as we worked with principals this summer, we, we talked about it, it's important to go through that active shooter, um, drill. It's important to, you know, as you practice the drills, instead of just doing the drills maybe in the auditorium or the cafeteria, where you normally are, maybe you need to step into, into a classroom with your staff. And let's talk about when that, when that alarm goes off, that we need to secure. What does that, what does that feel like, you know, behind that closed doors? What are the things that we're, that we're doing? What are the things we can
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Do? You know, the other thing that I think we've really, um, worked on as we begin a new school year is, is on spiraling that training. And so it's not just one time at the beginning, it's not just the two fire drills that we do. It's, it's really something that lasts throughout the school year for both staff and students. Yeah. And so parents, you know, really can expect that we're gonna, you know, we have a written drill schedule and we have it down and our schools are, are, are putting those on a calendar when we're gonna do those so that we practice them and, um, and make sure that folks are trained. And so it, it's, it's the formal drills that we do. And then the other things that we're doing with training really are simple as how do we walk through a door and make sure that it secures behind us? Um, and as we come in the door, how do we make sure that as we head into the school, that that door that we're leaving at the front or the side of the building comes shut and is locked and secured every time?
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Yeah. I, you never thought that you'd have to stop and, and ring train people how to come in and outta doors because we've gone in and outta doors our entire lives, whether it's somebody opening the door for us or us opening it ourselves. We walk through the door and we just allow it to swing shut behind us. And I think we live in a world today that we all need to learn to stop as we go through that door, turn around and pull that door shut and make sure that door pressure, the air pressure from inside the buildings, not keeping that door or that from, from latching and making sure that, that our building's really safe. I think it's another place, Kevin, that we ought to give people permission if we've got somebody, uh, who has decided to prop a door open and somebody sees it, they need to do something about it.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
And absolutely. And that permission is kick that, you know, kick that lever up, close that door, and then immediately go find your administrator who, or your, your, um, coordinator, whomever you report to and have a conversation about. Remember, safety comes first. I think you heard a parent say this summer in several of the meetings that you were in, you know, it sounds like to me convenience means we're an unsafe and inconvenient means we're safe. And, and we don't want our schools to be so inconvenient that we can't have school. Uh, but we also wanna make sure our schools are safe. And so when somebody sees something, say something, do something. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Um, communications, let's talk about communications. I, I'm really excited. Um, and really, um, you, you've kind of had a vision for one part of this and I've worked on, on another that we had. But, um, we have a couple of new forms coming out, um, online where folks can give us feedback concerning safety. And so, um, you know, from a student parent stakeholder, community member standpoint, um, we have a, a form online, um, that's on our safety page, um, that is called the School Safety First Form. And so it, it really is a form that is for, um, serious concerns about, um, weapons or threats or other kinds of violence related to school. Um, you can share, um, uh, as much information as you'd like. Um, you can share your name so we can follow up with you or you can remain anonymous. And so it's just a really quick, easy way. And sometimes, um, that'll be routed to the correct people, our campus administrators, our safety team, our Amarillo, I s d police department, and we'll get on looking into that concern and investigating it and figuring out what's the right way to address.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Yeah. I, Kevin, this is, this goes back to see something, say something. Almost every one of these events that takes place across the nation or that have happened in some of our schools at times, somebody saw the flags flying before the event happened. And so it doesn't matter whether it's at, you know, eight o'clock in the morning that you overhear something in the hallway, or if it's, you know, at midnight and you're about to go to bed and you saw something on Facebook, you know, this form will allow, uh, students, parents, community members, staff members, stakeholders, um, to send a message. And, and it's not uncommon for our team, you know, for for, to get that dinging in the middle of the night. And when that ding goes off, you roll over and, and, and there's, there's an issue happening. And so we can start taking immediate action even if it's in the middle of the night. And that's not uncommon for us.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Right. Talk to us about the, the safety control page for staff.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Yeah. I, I think this comes back to, uh, just transparency for us. Um, you know, in, in the medical world, um, they, they have a, they have a practice called a, a medical page. And it, it's really when somebody makes an error, uh, they hope it's not a grave error, but when they make an error, whether it's about they gave a medication too early, gave it too late, gave it too often, or if there were some other procedure that was taking place, and either you self-report that, uh, or somebody else reports it. And let's get really clear this, this is not a gotcha page. This is not something to get someone in trouble. It is about us looking at our, our practices, our protocols, and our procedures. Are we following them? Uh, and, and if we're not following them, how do we need to change that process or that protocol?
Speaker 5 (08:30):
And so the safety control page is really a place for staff to go in when they see something and they think, God, we gotta do better here. We can't have that door unlocked, or we need to change this process that it's not working. What this allows is for anyone on staff to be able to report what they see and what they're feeling and, and what may be a solution might be. And then it allows us to get it into chain of command and work through it to see if we can improve our processes. Because what this is about is about getting better and not getting complacent.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Right. So again, both of these forms, um, on our website, ama isd.org, and you're gonna look for the section about police and safety, and both of those links can be found there. And again, um, those will be routed to the correct people. So Doug, um, kind of one of those things that I don't know people have a lot of mixed emotions about, but the hardening of schools. So, um, talk about, uh, the thought process that we've had and vision around hardening.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Yeah. Uh, we've, we've spent a lot of time talking about how do you harden your campus? And so one of the first things that we've done is we've, we've improved our, um, security, uh, devices and equipment that our liaison officers and our A I S D PD officers have at their disposal. We are making sure that they have things that will allow them to breach doors to get into schools. We've spent a lot of time, um, making sure our local law enforcement all have access, um, to our buildings, um, and in an emergency. And, and so they, they now, or, and, and shortly will, uh, have access, uh, to our campuses. And then when they get there, the equipment that they might need will be available on our campuses so they could breach a door if they needed to breach a door. So that's one example.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Um, you know, the, the other thing that we've, we've taken a hard look because when you, when you think about securing a campus, you really, if you, if you start from the outside, you start at the perimeter at the property line, and then you move to the envelope of the building, and then really the last bastion of security is that classroom where you are. And so we've taken a lot hard look at our classrooms, and all of our classrooms over the next 12 months or so will be retrofitted with hardcore doors, um, that, that are windowless. And they will have classroom function door locks, meaning that every time a door closes, it'll be locked automatically. And to be able to get inside of that classroom, uh, you'll have to have a key to unlock that door. And that just adds to that level of security.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Nobody's having to think about, did I lock my door? Did I not lock my door? What do I do when that drill goes off and I don't have my key and have to step out into the hallway to try to lock a door? Um, and we've not lost sight of how that will disrupt class, the function of schools. And so we're looking at, can we an additional to the, to the hardcore doors, the classroom function door locks, can we get fob access, um, which will help the, the functioning of the school move, move at a, at a better pace. Um, and so all of that is, is being looked at and, and will, the doors and the locks have, have already been approved and they're moving. And so we're looking at that fall access as, as another example,
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Um, environmental control. So one, one of the areas that our, um, bond committee actually over the last year or so, identified as an area that we needed to improve, um, in is, is our elementary and, and some of our secondary gyms. So those gyms where re don't have air conditioning, um, those doors many times are propped open for airflow, and we realize the vulnerability that, that that creates for our kids. So we, we've created a, a kind of a prototype over at, um, Belmar Elementary. And so our, our in-house maintenance crews, our currently, um, they've actually finished Belmar. They know what it takes to, to air condition one of those elementary sized gyms, the equipment that's needed, the supplies that are needed. And so, um, we've got, I think a, a model there that we can recreate and we've already approved beginning to air condition those elementary gyms that we have so that we don't have doors that need to be propped open. Uh, a little bit more extensive amount of work's gonna be required at the secondary level to address middle schools and even some of our high school gyms that are not air conditioned. But those are things we're working on, um, to make sure that we don't have, um, you know, some simple solutions to things that cause us to be vulnerable.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Uh, another, another piece of the, of the hardening aspect is that conversation about how do you control the perimeter? And we, we've been able to control our perimeter with, with fencing at our high schools. And so the next question is, how do you control that perimeter with our middle schools and elementaries, and we've contracted with an architect and they're studying what that looks like and what it will take. And so coming soon will be recommendations on how do we start securing the perimeter of, of our elementaries and middle schools, um, to, to ensure that safety.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Absolutely. And, you know, um, I think you mentioned it earlier, but you know, making sure our law enforcement partners have access when they need it to our schools. We've, we've worked on that with local law enforcement partners, um, to make sure that, you know, whether it's during school hours or after school hours, those folks can access school buildings when they need to. Um, updating some of our, our camera coverage and, and video camera access that we have, um, we, we really have a pretty extensive system of that, but we have some areas where we can make coverage better. And then finally, the communication just from individual classrooms. So updates to, uh, a hardwired telephone, so to speak, um, that is in every single classroom as well as PA communications that, that make those communications even more ro robust than they are.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
Yeah. I, I think it, what's important, you know, is some of the lessons that we've learned out of the latest shootings, uh, and incidents that happened at campuses is, uh, from those PA systems, because not always does someone at the school have the ability to call for a lockdown because of the incident that's going on, and based on the upgrades that we have from the pa, uh, we'll be able to call a lockdown from virtually anywhere in the, in the district, in a campus that needs to be locked down immediately. And so that's definitely improving. Um, this is not really about hardening Kevin, but one of the things I'm, I'm most proud about, uh, the work that's been going on with us, the both the Potter and Randall County Sheriff's Department, a p d, our own A I S D D P S, and the Texas Rangers Juvenile Probation from both counties and, and then several, uh, mental health professionals from across the community.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
We've been meeting, um, and we've had four i four or five meetings over the last, you know, 60 days or so that really has allowed us to talk about how do we work better together, whether it's about communicating together, whether it's about access into our buildings when there's an emergency, and then, and then how do we support one another, um, to be more proactive than just reactive. And those, those conversations are, um, ongoing. And really there's, we, we've, we've already crossed some of those bridges that other places seem to, to struggle with in, in terms of when there's, when there's an emergency, how does the communication, um, unfold? Who's in charge when somebody shows up at, at an, at a, at a scene and, and all of our law enforcement entities are, are really clear and have a clear understanding of how that works. Um, and, and what I, what I, what I feel from them is I don't have any, any qualms about who will be first through the door and what they will do to ensure our staff and our kids are safe, um, if, if and when the day comes that we find ourselves in one of those situations.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
You know, one thing we didn't talk about that is a big part of what we're doing is, is the use of the Raptor app and the Raptor technology. Yeah. So, um, as a part of our campus trainings, um, during that half day, we're, we're given our, our, our staff members the chance to not only train and learn about how to use Raptor, but how to practice using Raptor. And again, it's a, it's a, um, phone or, or iPad based app in most cases. And we all know that the easiest way to learn how to use a new app on your phone is to, um, play with it and to, to practice with it. And so, um, really having a strong foundation for all staff members about how do you account for yourself, and in the case of an emergency, how do we account for every one of our kids? And, um, and how do we, you know, report different things that are going on as we see them. And again, that's anyone, that's anybody from the principal all the way to a custodian on a campus. How do, how do we do that together? And, um, and so learning and, and learning about Raptor and then having the chance to practice with Raptor is a big part of what we're doing with staff.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Yeah. Kevin, I, I what I, I'm impressed with what Raptor has brought to us from terms of notification all the way to reunification in, in a disaster. But what I think is important, and there's no single one way, uh, to report an emergency. Remember, all our classrooms are, have panic buttons in them. They all soon will have telephones in them. Um, and then we have Raptor. And so there are multiple ways to, to call for an emergency. Um, I think it's important for everybody to understand you have that permission. If the hair on the back of your neck standing up, something doesn't feel right, and you think, Hey, I think, I think we at least need to go to a, a, a, a secure, maybe not a complete lockdown, but a secure, you need to have, have the confidence to push that button, whatever that button is, or make that call and say, here's what's happening.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Because when you see something, please, please say something. Um, if, if I had three wishes, um, for, for this school year, one would be every person who walks through a door will stop, turn around and make sure that door secu secures behind them. Absolutely. Number two, um, let's make sure our communication is clear and concise. We, we've talked about a, a couple of new web-based, uh, uh, protocols that when staff or stakeholders see something, say something, let's, let's get it into the system and let's get working on that. And maybe number and number three, just as, just as important as we drill and as we work through, through what could be those tabletop activities, make sure we're taking those seriously and that we're working through those and we're seeing them as a way to be proactive and, and not fail in an actual situation.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Okay, folks, that wraps up this, uh, episode of Schoolwork. And again, just a reminder as needed, when we feel there's something important for our staff, for our community to know about in A I S D, we're gonna be using the Schoolwork podcast. And so we look forward to being with you, um, the next time,
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Soon be.