© Clinton County News

In Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008 issue

Almost a year ago, the Clinton County School District was approved for a grant for more than $700,000, renewable for four years, with a single goal of keeping students safer while attending schools.

School officials last week showed off one of the new additions stemming from those grant funds that has just that very goal as it’s chief purpose - a new, state of the art surveillance and security system.

The new systems were recently installed during the summer break at three Clinton County schools for the initial phase of the program.

Throughout the next four years, Charlotte Bernard, Project Director, said the school district plans to be finished with installation in all the schools and facilities.

“We want to reassure the parents to know that we are working to provide safety for their child,” Bernard said.

Kevin Groce is the School Safety Coordinator for Clinton County.

Groce added that building a partnership between the community is another reason providing safety for the students is so important.

“Even though we have had tragic events across the United States over the past few years, it has caused schools to be more safe because of that,” Groce said. “Even though we have had those events, schools are safer now. We have learned from those events.”

The grant is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In a story published in the Clinton County News almost a year ago, a five element plan was put into effect. Installing the surveillance systems in each of the schools is just apart of element number one.

“Our Safe Schools/Healthy Students program has provided surveillance monitors at the Clinton County High School, middle school and technology center,” Groce said. “We will be working on the other schools in the future. It provides better surveillance in the longer hallways and in the hidden stairwells.”

The projects have provided three safety monitoring systems that have been installed in school facilities. Each system is connected by 16 separate cameras throughout each facility.

The program also provided video cameras in the parking lots of the facilities.

“If we do have vandalism we will have documented proof of what ever is going on,” Groce said. “We also have better surveillance of students passing from the high school to the new athletic complex. We pretty much have surveillance in all areas of the schools.”

The school district has also recently purchased a mass communications system, which is a way to get in touch with parents if a crisis were to present itself.

Bernard said if a crisis were to come up, parents can be notified by phone, cell phone or text message.

“Building a partnership between the parents, first responders and law enforcement is a part of bringing the community together,” Groce said.

The mass communications system will be used to supply information about a particular crisis and will notify parents when they can pick up their child.

“It will tell you what’s going on, where it is located and how to respond,” Bernard said. “I know it’s difficult in a crisis situation, but to flock out to the schools is not the thing to do. Most generally there will be a designated place for the parents to come to in order to get the information about what’s going on.”

“With the mass communication system, parents will have the facts up front instead of the rumor mill that creates chaos around the community,” Groce added.

At the beginning of each school year, parents are asked to fill out paper work on the child to be enrolled in school. Phone numbers are taken from that paperwork and used for the mass communications system.

“If a phone number or address is changed, parents need to notify the school to get that information updated,” Bernard said.

The SAFE-T (Schools And Families Empowered Together) grant has allowed the school district to hire two more School Resource Officers to place at the Albany Elementary School and the middle school.

“We are working to build a better communication with the community as a whole in the event of a crisis,” Groce said.

Along with providing the schools with a new surveillance system, the school system has also hired a safety consultant to inspect the school and point out the safety hazards within those facilities. Groce said they have repaired most all the hazards pointed out by the consultant.

“We are hoping to enhance the safety of all the schools in our school district,” Groce said.

Groce stated that by having a safe environment for the students, it will enable them to learn more in the classrooms.

“Research shows that when students have caring adults they feel comfortable enough with to talk about a problem at school, schools are much safer,” Groce said. “According to our 2006 Safety Assessment, students in our district did have people at schools they felt comfortable enough with to share their problems.”

Groce and Bernard believe that by providing a safe environment for students, it makes students feel safe, thus freeing their minds for learning. If a student’s mind is preoccupied about not being safe, then they are not going to learn as much in the classroom.