St. Vrain Valley Schools has had tremendous success in cultivating a culture of school safety, positive outlooks and interconnectedness. BY MATTHEW WIGGINS PHOTOS BY JOHN DAVID, KERRI MCDERMID AND MATTHEW WIGGINS
School Culture Drives Student Safety I
T IS NO SECRET THAT ST. VRAIN VA L L E Y S C H O O L S VA LU E S CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY, high-quality teachers a nd academic excellence within its schools. These essentials a re considered ‘priority one’ when speaking to any district official or community stakeholder. Another area of equal importa nce is student sa fety a nd providing secure learning environments for our community’s grea test asset – students. With the successful passage of two bond measures and strong finances, St. Vrain remains dedicated to investing in safety and security. Over a span of eight
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yea rs, the school district has alloca ted $4.2 million to facility improvements such as secure entryways, indoor a nd outdoor camera systems, school resource officers (SROs) and upgrades related to increased emergency response times. In addition to building upgrades, students and staff engage in several trainings and drills throughout the year – averaging 811 drills across all schools annually and 1,890 hours of training designated for campus supervisors, SROs, school leadership and district administration. Every camera installed and every drill performed greatly increases our ability to
provide safe learning environments, but by far, the greatest asset we have in responding to critical situations is the culture created within the classrooms and hallways of our schools. Staci Stallings has been an SRO at Silver Creek High School for the past three years of her ten-year tenure with the Longmont Police Department. She fully believes that a strong, well-defined culture contributes to school safety. “The term school sa fety is often associated with prevention. When I think of school safety, I think of a student’s mental health, the quality of life in school a nd