The Jefferson City Board of Education's safety and security committee met for the first time Tuesday to work on charting the vision for creating "a uniform approach to safety and security" across the district, in the words of Michael Couty, the board member serves as the committee's chairman.
The district already has a printed copy of a building-specific crisis management plan in every classroom, with tabs of information for specific types of incidents, like intruders or a loss of power.
The inaugural committee meeting was about drafting "a road map of where we are and where we need to be going," Couty said.
The committee received a large stack of printed information, much of it draft copies of a district-wide security assessment and an updated district emergency response plan.
Beyond personnel changes, "One of the most important updates for this plan this coming school (year) is, when I first arrived, I was aware that we already had safehouses designated for every building," district Safety-Security Coordinator Kurt Mueller said. Later, "it dawned on me, especially after one of the recent tragedies in San Bernardino, that maybe, in reality safehouses aren't that practical, and that we should focus on evacuation or reunification sites for buildings. So I drew back and did that, and that's now included in this plan."
In April, the estranged husband of an elementary teacher in San Bernardino, California, came into his wife's special education classroom and murdered her with a handgun. Before he fatally turned the gun on himself, the bullets police believe were only meant for his wife also killed one student and injured another, who were standing behind their teacher.
The San Bernardino Sun reported in the immediate aftermath, the elementary school's students were evacuated to a local college campus and then a high school, and parents picked their children up after showing proof of identification.
Mueller said he's reached a formal agreement with community partners to establish such evacuation or reunification sites for each of the schools of the Jefferson City district, "so in the, god forbid, in the rare event that we may have to evacuate a campus during school hours, that we have a designated location that our staff knows that's where we're heading with the students to arrange reunification with their families, with their caregivers."
For schools in the east and center parts of Jefferson City, that site will be The Linc, and the Jefferson City Jaycees Fairgrounds for central- and west-located schools. An agreement with the city of Holts Summit for elementary schools across the Missouri River in Callaway County is pending, he said.
Besides Mueller, Couty and fellow board members Pam Murray and Lorelei Schwartz, the other people on the committee Tuesday were Sgt. Jason Payne of the Jefferson City Police Department, district maintenance supervisor John Moon, Superintendent Larry Linthacum, Jefferson City High School Assistant Principal Jacob Adams and South Elementary School Principal Angela Otiker.
The district's chief financial and operating officer, Jason Hoffman, and David Patton, Thomas Jefferson Middle School assistant principal, are also on the committee but were not in attendance Tuesday.
Those present also received a list of safety and security initiatives that will be projects for the coming year, though it's not expected the district will get through all of them in that time.
Other initiatives beyond the crisis management plan updates and establishing the evacuation and reunification sites include introducing the ALiCE crisis response training to more staff, improving radio communication at the district's two middle schools, making a flashing light crosswalk at Pioneer Trail Middle School and establishing safety teams in each building of the district. ALiCE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate.
Couty suggested future committee meetings be quarterly, and the parties involved seemed to agree Monday mornings work best.