The Elizabeth C-1 School District sponsored its second community
safety meeting March 5 to a nearly empty house. School officials
and first responders outnumbered parents, with nearly 30 officials
attending with about five parents to provide an update on the
district’s efforts toward tightened security at the schools. The
low turnout does not detract the district from its task at hand,
said Bart Christiansen, School Board President.
“The fact that there aren’t that many people here does not
diminish our responsibilities,” Christiansen said.
School security was of great interest at the start of the school
year after a school shooting at Platte Canyon High School in
Bailey. The Elizabeth C-1 School District responded to public
concerns with increased security at school campuses. The district
now greets visitors with volunteer door monitors, new camera
equipment and greater restrictions on access to school
grounds.
The efforts continue with emergency training for teachers, an
incident command structure at the schools and improved
communication between key personnel in the district, said Jim
Trevino, Elizabeth High School Principal.
Trevino is the co-chair of the school safety committee, which
meets once a month to brainstorm security measures and for updates
from emergency responders. The committee provides information to
the community through the district’s Web site and is looking into a
student-run radio station as another form of
communication.
Communication is among the highest priorities for the safety
committee, which has successfully lobbied the school board for an
investment in new pagers, radio equipment and telephones in secure
areas throughout the schools, said Mike Scobe, Director of
Technology.
The district provides updates to parents on its Web site and
officials want the Internet to become the first place parents visit
during a crisis, Scobe said.
“The Web site will be something we use in our emergency response
plan,” Scobe said. “It will be the first place the public goes to
get information because it doesn’t tie up phone lines.”
The district uses its Web site to notify parents about school
closures and delays and to provide links to the fire department and
Colorado Bureau of Investigations, Scobe said. The district hopes
to provide Palm Pilots to key personnel for a direct link to
emergency responders about students’ location and personal
information in an emergency, he said.
The district presently has a direct radio link to emergency
responders along the Front Range, thanks to a donation of equipment
and expertise from the Elizabeth Police Department and Elbert
County’s Emergency Communications Center, said superintedent Bob
Neel.
Radio communications also provide a link for the transportation
department, which can communicate from school-to-school,
school-to-bus and bus-to-bus, said Terry Wilson, director of
transportation. The next step is to be able to encrypt
communication to go “silent” in a hostile situation.
To maintain security at campuses, the district relied this year
on the efforts of volunteers and the school staff to monitor
visitors at the schools, Christiansen said. Motion detectors,
proximity cards to track on-campus entry activity and in-school
cameras round out the security efforts, but the district expects
the volunteer interest to wane as time passes.
Whether the community is prepared to make the investment in paid
door monitors remains to be seen, he said.
“It becomes a budget item,” Christiansen said. “I’m not saying
we won’t do it, but at some point it will eat into other items. Is
that how the community wants their money spent? Eventually,
something’s got to give.”
The district and emergency responders encourage parents to keep
their students’ personal contact information up to date, refrain
from using cell phones during an emergency, refrain from going to
the school campus during a crisis and continue to check the
district’s Web site for updates. To prepare for an emergency at
home or in the community, school nurse Ellen Thompson recommends
the Red Cross web site at www.redcross.org for disaster checklists.
For updated information from the school district, visit the Web
site at www.elizabeth.k12.co.us.
Contact Rhonda Moore at 303-646-2710 or
atoore@ccnewspapers.com.