January 24, 2022 at 11:03 a.m.
School board briefed on building safety procedures
School board briefed on building safety procedures
In the open session briefing. Fogerty told the board that school safety is a concern nationally, and the frequency of "events" in schools making news is a constant reminder of how widespread the problem has become. He said school safety is also a priority countywide.
"We work not only to ensure that every day-to-day basic stuff in the school district is done safe, not only here, but also in Three Lakes and Lakeland, as well," Fogerty said. "Obviously, we know that we can't control everything, but part of my job is to predict the predictable. If there is something we can predict that we know could happen, it is our job to make sure we're prepared for it. So we've done stuff at the school level and the county level to make sure there is stuff in place connected to events that could happen at any of our schools."
He said the planning involves considering possible scenarios and making plans for each.
"We also have to make sure that if those things happen, that we have a plan in place to get our students back in contact with their parents," Fogerty said, adding that he would be able to go into more details in closed session.
School safety also came up under the agenda topic "operational and financial stewardship" which also included a brief report on the results of the annual audit of district finances by SDR business manager Bob Thom.
Thom said the audit is also part of the strategic plan, and he said there were "no findings or concerns."
He then addressed the second half of the topic - school safety - stating that the district runs all of the prescribed drills.
"We did have training that Sgt. Fogerty put together for us for the active shooter training and lockdowns," Thom said. "He'll get into that more when we get into closed session."
In a memo to the board contained in the meeting packet, Thom said the district and sheriff's office have worked together to "prepare school evacuation and reunification plans in case of a large event in one or more of our buildings."
"All administrators, secretaries and maintenance staff have been trained in the proper response in the case of an evacuation," Thom said in the memo. "We have also worked with local businesses to have evacuation facilities available as well with Bowen's Bus to be prepared to transport students in the event of an emergency."
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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