Last month's tragedy in Parkland, Florida, reminds us once again that safety and security in our schools needs to be our top priority. When these tragedies occur, it is easy to overanalyze the facts of the individual event and second guess what might have been done to avoid such a horrific event. In reality, no school or district is truly prepared for such a heinous event. However, we all can unite as a community to understand that times have changed and how we view safety and security needs to change with the times.
As far as the School District of Monroe is concerned, there are some areas we consider strengths when considering school security. First and foremost, our relationship with the Monroe Police Department and the Green County Sheriff's Department is the strongest I have witnessed in any of the six districts I have served as a teacher, principal or district administrator. While we do not have a dedicated School Resource Officer (SRO) in our buildings full time, local law enforcement's response to our calls is almost immediate, and the level of cooperation we feel with these agencies gives me great confidence we can count on our local law enforcement to help assure the safety of our students and staff.
Our second strength is our students and staff. Both in my service as a principal at the high school, and this year in my new role within the district, we have been able to avoid potentially dangerous events because our students have tipped off administration and/or law enforcement when potential threats are shared verbally or posted on social media. While I am not suggesting that our students tell us everything, I am indicating that our student body as a whole knows what type of information they need to report immediately in order to keep themselves and everybody else safe.
Lastly, we are very grateful for the security upgrades the last referendum allowed us to make. We have installed state of the art video surveillance in all of our buildings (and these cameras are incredible), we installed bollards in front of all of our doors that could be susceptible to vehicle crash penetration, and we installed key card entry to staff entry doors. We only have one unlocked door, or set of doors, during the school day at each building, and we monitor these entries to the best of our capabilities given the layout of our offices.
It is the layout of our offices in our schools that is probably our biggest challenge. Our schools were constructed in 1986 or earlier, and school security was not a focus in school architecture at that time. We desperately want to create "secure entrances" where visitors entering during the school day must only gain entry through the main office. This is by far the most effective way to secure a school, but making this a reality will require remodeling in all five schools. In at least three of our five schools, the remodeling would be significant.
Many people have asked me recently about closed-circuit cameras and automatic electronic locks for front doors. This solution does not require a secure entrance and certainly is more economical. However, such systems require those monitoring the systems to be very diligent in questioning and checking the credentials of visitors, and I can speak from experience in my previous districts that have those systems, they still face challenges. Quite often they need to address community complaints about being scrutinized about their intent for entry. As a result, office staff can sometimes be viewed as unwelcoming in these situations. These systems are ineffective if employees make buzzing people in for entry routine.
The state legislature and Gov. Scott Walker are proposing some legislation to improve school security. Additional funds for security would certainly be welcomed, but the proposed bill to provide grants for armed guards would pay 75 percent of the cost of the staff next year, 50 percent the following year and 25 percent in the third year with no promise of funding in the future. While financial support could help, this seems like a short-term solution that might leave school districts in the unenviable position of having no funding in these positions in the future, which could force us to justify to our community pulling officers or guards out of all schools for financial reasons. I would hate to think that school safety is being used as a political mechanism rather than being viewed as a civil right for our students and families.
The district decided to hold off on secure entries and sophisticated door entry systems until the debt from the referendum in the late 1990s had expired so we can consider such upgrades in potential future remodeling projects. However, the tragedy in Parkland has reminded us that addressing issues now is every bit as important as addressing matters in a more sophisticated manner in the future.
We are working on some short-term upgrades at this time, and we are focused on upgrading school security further in the future as our funding allows. In the meantime, we would like to thank our local law enforcement for working tirelessly to keep our students safe and we want to let the community know that our students speaking up when something isn't right is the most important security measure we can ever have in place.
Let's work together as a community to keep our students safe and GO CHEESEMAKERS!!
- Rick Waski is the district administrator for the School District of Monroe. He can be reached at 608-328-7109 or rickwaski@monroe.k12.wi.us.
As far as the School District of Monroe is concerned, there are some areas we consider strengths when considering school security. First and foremost, our relationship with the Monroe Police Department and the Green County Sheriff's Department is the strongest I have witnessed in any of the six districts I have served as a teacher, principal or district administrator. While we do not have a dedicated School Resource Officer (SRO) in our buildings full time, local law enforcement's response to our calls is almost immediate, and the level of cooperation we feel with these agencies gives me great confidence we can count on our local law enforcement to help assure the safety of our students and staff.
Our second strength is our students and staff. Both in my service as a principal at the high school, and this year in my new role within the district, we have been able to avoid potentially dangerous events because our students have tipped off administration and/or law enforcement when potential threats are shared verbally or posted on social media. While I am not suggesting that our students tell us everything, I am indicating that our student body as a whole knows what type of information they need to report immediately in order to keep themselves and everybody else safe.
Lastly, we are very grateful for the security upgrades the last referendum allowed us to make. We have installed state of the art video surveillance in all of our buildings (and these cameras are incredible), we installed bollards in front of all of our doors that could be susceptible to vehicle crash penetration, and we installed key card entry to staff entry doors. We only have one unlocked door, or set of doors, during the school day at each building, and we monitor these entries to the best of our capabilities given the layout of our offices.
It is the layout of our offices in our schools that is probably our biggest challenge. Our schools were constructed in 1986 or earlier, and school security was not a focus in school architecture at that time. We desperately want to create "secure entrances" where visitors entering during the school day must only gain entry through the main office. This is by far the most effective way to secure a school, but making this a reality will require remodeling in all five schools. In at least three of our five schools, the remodeling would be significant.
Many people have asked me recently about closed-circuit cameras and automatic electronic locks for front doors. This solution does not require a secure entrance and certainly is more economical. However, such systems require those monitoring the systems to be very diligent in questioning and checking the credentials of visitors, and I can speak from experience in my previous districts that have those systems, they still face challenges. Quite often they need to address community complaints about being scrutinized about their intent for entry. As a result, office staff can sometimes be viewed as unwelcoming in these situations. These systems are ineffective if employees make buzzing people in for entry routine.
The state legislature and Gov. Scott Walker are proposing some legislation to improve school security. Additional funds for security would certainly be welcomed, but the proposed bill to provide grants for armed guards would pay 75 percent of the cost of the staff next year, 50 percent the following year and 25 percent in the third year with no promise of funding in the future. While financial support could help, this seems like a short-term solution that might leave school districts in the unenviable position of having no funding in these positions in the future, which could force us to justify to our community pulling officers or guards out of all schools for financial reasons. I would hate to think that school safety is being used as a political mechanism rather than being viewed as a civil right for our students and families.
The district decided to hold off on secure entries and sophisticated door entry systems until the debt from the referendum in the late 1990s had expired so we can consider such upgrades in potential future remodeling projects. However, the tragedy in Parkland has reminded us that addressing issues now is every bit as important as addressing matters in a more sophisticated manner in the future.
We are working on some short-term upgrades at this time, and we are focused on upgrading school security further in the future as our funding allows. In the meantime, we would like to thank our local law enforcement for working tirelessly to keep our students safe and we want to let the community know that our students speaking up when something isn't right is the most important security measure we can ever have in place.
Let's work together as a community to keep our students safe and GO CHEESEMAKERS!!
- Rick Waski is the district administrator for the School District of Monroe. He can be reached at 608-328-7109 or rickwaski@monroe.k12.wi.us.
