School Safety

Safety and Security Community Forum (March 19)

On March 19, we had approximately 200 community members, parents, school staff, local police/firefighters/EMTs, and other first responders, take part in sharing concerns, feedback, and suggestions regarding the safety and security of our schools. We started by having all participants sit at one of the 24 tables spread around the large PVM cafeteria.  We had an administrator seated at each table with a device so he/she could document all of the safety concerns/feedback that was shared at each table. Each table had a specific tab within the Google document allowing us the opportunity to know all concerns and suggestions in one very comprehensive document.  

We had a local police officer with many years of law enforcement experience as well as running the school security for a large school district in Onondaga County.  This individual played a key role in helping a neighboring school district and their local police department utilize the position of Special Patrol Officer, which is exactly what our District will be doing.  We are looking at obtaining three Special Patrol Officers to start, and even though they will be affiliated with the Central Square Village Police Department, they can still do everything as they would within the jurisdiction of the village, except the booking of arrests, which would be handed over to the local police department for that area. We are very excited to have these trained law enforcement professionals in our schools, not just for the added security measure, but also to provide professional development on school safety for our staff on an ongoing basis. These officers will be in our schools 100% of their time and will not be called anywhere else by the Village Police Department. 

We also had a local fire chief from a neighboring town who also happens to be a Central Square parent speak to the packed room of participants.  He spoke from a medical perspective and opportunities for the students to be able to learn emergency techniques, similar to the Stop The Bleed program held at Upstate Hospital. Although he is not affiliated with this program, he was able to discuss its main focus. If you are interested in learning more about this program at Upstate Medical University, click on the following link: http://www.upstate.edu/surgery/healthcare/trauma/stop-the-bleed.php  .
He also spoke about other things that our District needs to be aware of in case of an emergency, all of which were very well received. 

We will soon invite all the participants that attended the March 19 community forum to a follow up meeting where we can share with the group all of the feedback that was shared that day, since there were 24 tables full of people contributing. 

Our District will be purchasing NaviGate Prepared through BOCES which allows it to be both extremely affordable for the District through the BOCES Coser, and consistent for the many police and fire departments in our region that will benefit from having many school districts using this technology tool. The NaviGate app does many things such as maintaining all current safety plans and drill procedures, as well as a 360' view of every room in each of our schools, which will come in very handy for police and firefighters when responding to a crisis situation. The best part about this technology is that it will allow any staff member to initiate a lock down if the situation should ever present itself.  This is a huge step towards empowering our staff to take action when one of them sees a potential danger, instead of relying on the building principal or main office secretary that might be in a different part of the school.  For more on NaviGate Prepared, click on the following website: https://tinyurl.com/NaviGate-Prepared  

Channel 9 recently mentioned this and you can click on the following link to view it: http://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/safety-app-allows-school-staff-to-report-threats-emergencies/1085312883