Atwater school board reviews student safety efforts

Atwater Elementary School District trustees spent much of their time at Tuesday’s board meeting reviewing efforts to keep students, staff and teachers safe. About a quarter of a million dollars is being spent to bolster safety at the district’s eight campuses.

Superintendent Sandy Schiber said the district is spending $170,000 on outdoor speaker systems for all eight sites, $34,000 to update fire alarms and security systems, and $42,000 to add more security cameras at school sites.

District maintenance personnel are just completing all door lock changes so doors can be locked from the inside, including classroom, library, cafeteria and office doors.

“Our board should be commended for strategically updating our sites in the area of safety,” Schiber said.

Board President Larry Whitney said providing a safe environment in which to learn and teach is paramount, especially with frequent news reports of dangerous school incidents around the country.

Whitney said allocating funds to address safety issues is a major accomplishment.

“I’m very happy we can keep campuses protected,” trustee Scott Lee said.

Trustee Joe Hoffar, a former Atwater police officer and safety consultant, said unfortunately the improvements aren’t a 100 percent guarantee of safety.

“The No. 1 priority of our school district is safety,” Hoffar said. “We want to do what we can to make sure students and staff are safe. We are very proactive about training staff and students to handle certain emergencies.”

Hoffar said besides upgrading burglar and fire alarms and hardware on doors, the district is continuing with its active shooter training drills and adding more surveillance cameras.

Schiber said sections of school site safety plans are revised annually to reflect changes in staff, facilities and procedures. All schools use the same format for the plans, which are developed by a Site Safety Committee and approved by the School Site Council.

Plans will be available for review in the district office this month and will be approved by the board next month.

This story was originally published November 20, 2014 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Atwater school board reviews student safety efforts."