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EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT SITUATION & NEEDS
Next, consider the type of safety training solution your school organization has adopted. Many school districts are moving beyond simple “lockdown” procedures and incorporating more proactive strategies for dealing with an aggressive intruder or active shooter threat. Training options include ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), “RUN-HIDE-FIGHT” and countless others. Whichever protocol your district follows may influence the type of space redesign you select. Your architect is the perfect resource to assist with marrying the spaces of new educational practices with security needs. Transparency and the use of common spaces for teaching are now very common in schools but they create security concerns if an intruder enters your facility. Design solutions that eliminate direct sightlines, adding a partition to separate sections of the building and high-security glazing are all things to consider in helping incorporate new educational spaces without making your building feel like a prison. Some other factors to consider for your facilities and building operations are: Are you an open campus? Where is dropoff and pick-up? How does your bussing work? Where are lunches and recess held? How do visitors and staff check in? Do you have secured entrances or do guests walk directly into the buildings? Are you implementing the use of key cards, badges and cameras? Are you able to make an announcement throughout your building(s) from any place in the building? Do you have security officers or partner with the local police department/village? You may also consider a “Security Vulnerability Assessment” from an outside safety and security consultant. Having a fresh set of eyes on your facilities may help narrow your focus on an immediate need.
3
ASSESS YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION
After understanding the challenges of your facilities, you then need to evaluate your financial situation and ability to implement a plan. While many districts have funds set aside for capital and technological improvements, many more do not and implementing any change that is beyond procedural may seem impossible. Fortunately, there are various grants available such as COPS School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP). You can learn more about this program at https://cops.usdoj.gov/svpp. The COPS grant requires coordination with your local law enforcement agency, as many other grant options do. Working with them up front on a plan is one of the best ways to achieve a successful outcome. Additionally, you do not need to implement every improvement at one time. Any step taken is one in the right direction when it comes to safety and security. Many solutions can be phased in or scaled over time to offer a good, better and best solution. An example of this process could be security camera implementation. While evaluating your building(s) it might seem like a desirable solution to add cameras at every location in the building without blind spots. Generally, an installation of that scale will take a fair amount of time and money to achieve. One option might be to start with a system, such as IP cameras, that can be built on an expandable network. Begin with exterior cameras one year, then moving to assembly areas another year, the ends of corridors another year and so on until you have the coverage that you ultimately want. With a well thought out plan of this nature, you can set aside money within your budget to implement purposeful annual security improvements.
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UPDATE Magazine / Winter 2019
A question that must be considered when looking at implementation over multiple years is how to prioritize improvements. You may have capital projects that naturally blend with security improvements. You may look at identifying the highest risk areas first, or you may be looking to make sure that all of your facilities have parity before moving on to the next items. This prioritization can be reviewed with your first responders, administration and potentially your architect to help with reasonableness, feasibility and cost. Lastly, you may consider a referendum with a security component to fund larger scale improvements. This is one of many reasons to engage with your community to discuss the efforts that your district is looking to make. The facilities are a community asset and the students and staff are a community responsibility, thus they should know that the district is looking out for their best interests.