Charlo School works to provide secure environment
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CHARLO – Charlo School Board heard updates about changes to the school security system, emergency plan and records policy at a board meeting that saw little action.
At the district’s open house parents were able to see the school’s new security doors, which limit access to school buildings.
“(The parents) thought that was a great idea and they really appreciate the district making the effort to give the campus a more secure look,” superintendent Thom Peck said.
The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School caused several schools across the valley to implement tighter security measures, Peck said.
“Everybody’s doing it and Mission Valley Security is swamped,” Peck said. “It’s almost become commonplace.”
Some parents still wonder why the doors are necessary, board member Dianna Kelley said.
“I’ve had several people call and ask about why we have to have security doors. They have no idea of the number of people who may be around that we don’t want to have around our kids,” Kelley said.
Some people think because Charlo is a small school, nothing bad will ever happen there, board chairman Shane Reum said.
In the event of an emergency situation the board wants students and teachers to be prepared. Peck recommended forming a committee to update the school’s emergency manual to include lightning and other situations not currently included.
“We have a safety and crisis manual,” Peck said. “It’s dated, but it meets all the requirements … It could be updated.”
Chairman Reum volunteered to serve on the committee.
The board also wants school records to be secure. Upon a second reading of proposed policies regarding maintenance and distribution of student and employee records, members said they were concerned that the scope of the new policies were too broad because records could be released to coaches, paraprofessionals, advisers or bus drivers at other districts.
“It just seems like they’ve opened it up to so many people that we’re like ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no,’” Peck said.
Principal Robert Love said currently administrators use their judgment to decide whether or not to release a student’s records. Often military recruiters will ask for the records, but Love refuses to release them without student permission.
“Some of the military recruiters can get pushy,” Love said. “Grants are another one. Grants always want all of this information. They want age. They want ethnicity. They want income.”
The board will have a third reading of the policies at its next meeting, by which time some of the questions about the ambiguities in the policy might be clarified.
In other business the board:
• Met three European exchange students.
• Authorized Peck to work with a professional development consortium.
• Read the results of a state risk behavior study for students.
• Discussed whether or not board members should have to pay to attend sporting events.
The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be Oct. 15.
