Clarke County School District Board of Education member Linda Davis listens to a speaker at the Sept. 12 BOE meeting at 595 Prince Ave. Denson felt that the meeting provided an open forum for the community. “I think it’s definitely helpful for the community and for staff and students alike to see what’s going on and see (what) future things (are happening),” Denson said. “I think it’s also important for us to point out that on top of these measures we are also taking steps with having mental health specialists.” Photo by Grady Dunston
The CCSD Board of Education is reinforcing and introducing multiple safety measures to ensure student and staff safety.
Following the recent school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, safety is the Clarke County School District Board of Education’s top priority.
This was made clear at the Sept. 12 BOE meeting, which was held at the district office at 595 Prince Ave. At the meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Dr. Garrick Askew presented a safety update about the security procedures in place at CCSD schools including the Centegix crisis alert system and annual safety trainings. These efforts have been in place in the past but are being reinforced to maintain safety at CCSD schools.
Another new safety measure is an increased police presence at CCSD schools. Officers’ main duties are to monitor the campus and student behavior. Brandon Hogan, a CCSD parent, fully supports having these officers in schools to ensure student safety.
“I don’t think there can be too much overkill. In this day and age, you’ve got to have (police officers). The safety of our children’s the most important thing,” Hogan said.
The Clarke County School District Board of Education’s Safety and Security Update, presented at the Sept. 12 BOE meeting is shown.In collaboration with Athens Clarke County unified government, CCSD has implemented collaborative response graphing, a system that identifies and locates all rooms, fire panels, emergency exits and more in schools. “If there’s an emergency call that goes out, let’s say to Barnett Shoals in room 302, (even) if the emergency responders have never been to Barnett Shoals, that’s not a problem because they have the direct coordinates.” Askew said. PDF courtesy of the CCSD
Executive Director of Public Relations and Communications Dr. Cyndee Moore feels that the meeting’s safety presentation increased understanding of district protocols.
“We’ve gotten a lot of inquiries, particularly in the last week, about how we’re keeping students, schools and staff safe and so it seemed to be a good idea to just share the things we can,” Moore said.
Despite community concern for safety, attendance at the BOE meeting was roughly 30 attendees, which dropped significantly after the recognition portion of the meeting. With the district’s responses to safety concerns in mind, BOE District Five representative Tim Denson feels that the district needs to modify its approach.
“(We need to) increase community engagement of families so that we can be going back to more preventative measures rather than just reactive, being more proactive,” Denson said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of inquiries, particularly in the last week, about how we’re keeping students, schools and staff safe and so it seemed to be a good idea to just share the things we can,”
— Dr. Cyndee Moore,
Executive Director of Public Relations and Communications
Despite community concern for safety, attendance at the BOE meeting was roughly 30 attendees, which dropped significantly after the recognition portion of the meeting. With the district’s responses to safety concerns in mind, BOE District Five representative Tim Denson feels that the district needs to take a more enthusiastic approach.
There was an extreme lack of turnout at the meeting, which began with roughly 30 attendees. After the staff recognition section ended there was a significant drop off in attendance.
