Education Blog

School Budget Challenges

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:41:00 GMT

I seem to have lots of questions today regarding school budget challenges, so please indulge me.

How does the nation’s struggling economy affect your school budgets (Source: USA Today, 11/11/2008, School districts caught in a squeeze)?

The American Association of School Administrators conducted a survey, which reported that “nearly half of superintendents are reducing hiring and cutting back on supplies. Twenty percent already have laid off staff, and another 31% have considered it.”

How do these budget reductions impact school security? For example, are you leveraging your security technology more effectively to compensate for a lack of school resource officers?

Are you exploring alternative funding options, such as working with local businesses to sponsor (fund) security purchases to reduce the direct costs to your schools?

How are you communicating your security programs to parents and teachers in light of the budget challenges?

Experiencing School Operations Firsthand

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:48:00 GMT

Recently, Wren's CEO, Andy Wren, participated in the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's Principal for a Day program. Here's Andy's account of his experience as a principal.

I wanted to share a few thoughts on my experience with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s Principal for a Day. First, I had a lot of emotions come rushing back as I entered the building, but I calmed down when they told me that there were no pop quizzes for me. I was fortunate enough to spend the day at Morningside Elementary with Principal Becky Pruitt. Morningside has approximately 970 students in Kindergarten through 5th grade, coupled with more than 100 teachers and staff; it is a very large operation. The main campus is an 80 year old treasure in the heart of the Morningside neighborhood that has been polished to show its character, while the kindergarten is housed a mile or so away in another historic building and an additional building under construction.

My biggest takeaway from the experience was the quality of education the children were receiving and the work they produced. I seem to recall my milestones at that age around tying my shoes, remembering my phone number and not eating paste. I reviewed some creative writing assignments that caused me to pull out the Thesaurus and watched some science projects that I still don’t understand. On top of my experience in the classes, Morningside’s test scores also reinforce my observations with a vast majority of all students exceeding the grade level standards.

As a provider of security solutions for schools, my Morningside experience reinforced the delicate approach required when implementing a school security program. Certainly, a school’s ability to offer a safe learning environment is a prerequisite to its ability to achieve the academic success I just described. Only in a safe environment can students and staff maintain a whole-hearted focus on learning. Ultimately, it is critical to balance security processes with the environment and deploy technology where appropriate. Safety plays an integral role in the education process.

Overall, it was a great day and I was extremely impressed with the work that Becky, her teachers and staff do to educate our children. Perspective changes a lot of things and looking back at my own elementary education, I have a new appreciation for the teachers that taught me as well as for all educators who do such a good job managing the multi-faceted business and education challenges schools face. These individuals who offer so much usually don’t get the credit they deserve.

What's the Cost of Not Having Adequate Video Surveillance?

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:05:00 GMT

The following presentation explains the cost of not having an adequate video surveillance solution in place for your school. Has an inadequate solution caused problems for your school?

Vaccination Law Fails to Touch All Kids

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Does your school district allow students without proof of vaccination to attend school two months after school starts? Some schools in Georgia do (Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/26/2008, Vaccination Law Fails to Touch All Kids).

The following paragraph from the AJC article says it all:

At College Park Elementary, only 29 percent of its 57 kindergartners were in compliance last fall, records show. Although the law says such children should be barred from the classroom, they aren’t, said principal Gretchen Thornton. “I can’t do that. Our business is to educate children,” she said. “The bottom line is, it isn’t the child’s fault if they don’t have the document.”

Additionally, the head of Atlanta Public Schools health services, Jayketa Singleton, says that some principals are more concerned about meeting attendance targets than enforcing vaccination laws.

“You’re going to have to exclude the kid from school to get some of these parents to act,” Singleton said. Principals who tell parents their child can’t come back without vaccinations achieve 95 percent to 100 percent compliance, she said, and children rarely miss more than a day of class.

Overall, there are two types of principals. There are those that enforce the regulations to ensure students comply and there are those that are more lax. The lax principals clearly do not endorse providing the safest learning environment possible for their students and staff. What other security regulations do these lax principals ignore?

Video Surveillance Does Not Equal Big Brother

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:27:00 GMT

Video surveillance is one component of a comprehensive school security program. It is only one component, but it is a necessary one. Since installing video surveillance in a Medford, Massachusetts, elementary school and a middle school in 2001 (Source: Boston Globe, 10/19/2008, ‘Big Brother’ concerns over school cameras), John Buckley, the district’s director of management and operations, said “vandalism dropped dramatically.” In fact, video captured images of several vandals and ultimately police filed criminal charges against them.

As a component of a security program, a video surveillance implementation does not mean that the school is conducting Big Brother monitoring. While the article quotes a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts saying that video turns the school more into a prison, nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, video along with other security practices help turn schools into safe learning environments that enable teachers and students to interact effectively for learning to take place.

With the funding challenges schools face, as well as an insufficient number of teachers and administrators to accommodate growing classrooms, does anybody really think that the overwhelming majority of schools officials have the time to install video surveillance, so they can monitor students (and staff) for minor indiscretions and catch them in the act? Of course, there will be those few schools that misuse video surveillance along with other security and technology initiatives, and those schools should suffer the consequences of punishment. But that is simply not the case with most school districts.

Overall, implementing a communications program in conjunction with a security program allows schools to overcome Big Brother objections and rally significant community support to provide safe learning environments. Clearly, schools must reach out to teachers, students, parents, local law enforcement and even the local ACLU branch to develop policies to ensure that security programs, especially ones that include video surveillance, are not misused and that they don’t utilize the technology inappropriately. By developing and communicating these policies upfront, schools and their communities can feel empowered to focus on the learning part of school because they’ll know that they are unified when it comes to school security.

Did you include the greater school community when developing your security policies? Did you communicate to your community how your district would leverage your new video surveillance solution?

High-security Research Labs Not So High Security

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:59:00 GMT

Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) labs do research on deadly germs and toxins, so there is an expectation that these facilities protect themselves, as well as their nearby communities, with a high level of security (Source: Associated Press, 10/16/2008, High-security research labs not so high security). Unfortunately, a BSL-4 lab at Georgia State University in Atlanta does not meet adequate security standards according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The report explained that the “lab lacked complete security barriers and any integrated security system, including any live monitoring by security cameras. Investigators said they watched an unidentified pedestrian enter the building through an unguarded loading dock.”

While the Georgia State lab has stated that it is taking steps to “enhance the lab’s safety and security standards,” this is another example of a school taking a reactive approach to safety and security. Clearly, the lab itself should have met security standards on its own to be awarded the opportunity to conduct such sensitive research. However, a check against the lab’s own security could also have come from Georgia State’s security staff. The security staff’s goal to provide a safe educational environment for its students, professors, and all other campus personnel was put in jeopardy by the lax lab security standards.

While I do not know the details of Georgia State’s security program, I’m curious about the following security practices.

- Did Georgia State conduct a comprehensive campus security assessment?
- Did the security assessment include an assessment of the school grounds and the school buildings?
- Was a vulnerability assessment of the school’s critical infrastructure conducted?

If these assessments were done, then why was the lab missed? If they weren’t done, then why weren’t they?

Do you conduct safety and security assessments at your school on a regular basis?

Jasper ISD Sets New Safety Policies

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:04:00 GMT

When you think of safe learning environments you should think of Jasper Independent School District (Source: The Jasper Newsboy, 10/8/2008, JISD sets new safety policies) in Jasper, Texas. Located approximately 135 miles northeast of Houston in east Texas, Jasper ISD has its school safety act together.

According to Interim Superintendent Dr. Jimmy Creel, “I take the position that the most important thing we can do is create a quality environment for each child. And the first thing you do is to provide a safe and secure environment.” Additionally, he said, “Schools have limited resources. That means you have to be creative to find resources or efficiently utilize existing resources in order to provide a more secure school environment.”

His last statement about being creative is exemplified by the Jasper Junior High assistant principal who also serves as the district’s safety and security officer. In addition to his assistant principal responsibilities, he also practices and promotes National Incident Management Systems standards along with many other crisis management duties.

The district has implemented crisis management plans and has focused on training staff and working with local first responders to ensure that everybody understands their roles and responsibilities in emergency situations. The district also had a third party perform a safety and security audit, which will highlight areas the district is doing well, such as in visitor management, as well as areas of risk that need to be addressed.

Overall, Jasper ISD knows that it’s not a question of if there will be a crisis, but it is a matter of when there will be one. Obviously, districts require funding to implement technology solutions, as well as provide security and safety training, but Jasper ISD does not rely solely on funding. By applying creativity to its crisis planning through cross training school administrators, the district has taken a progressive approach to providing a safe learning environment.

How does your district compare with Jasper? Are you providing a safe learning environment?

Video a Success in Water Valley ISD

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:37:00 GMT

In our continuing effort to keep you informed about school security, here is a success story about a school in Water Valley, Texas.

Access Control Underutilized in Schools

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:47:00 GMT

With schools facing numerous challenges, including how to improve education and provide safe learning environments, funding these efforts is a consistent barrier. Released this week, The Wren School Security Survey: Access Control, provides interesting insight about how schools leverage technology to control access to their schools, as well as deal with the budget constraints that force schools to choose their security options carefully, doing as much as available funding allows.

How are you handling access control in your school districts?

Incident-Inspired Security Funding

bret.rachlin@wrensolutions.com — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:45:00 GMT

“Safety is more important. You can’t learn if you’re not safe. That’s any child at any age,” says Dionne Fields, a parent in Knox County, Tennessee (Source: WVLT, 9/22/2008, Knox Co. Commission approves $195K school security boost). Fields’ comments reflect the feelings of many Knoxville parents after the August shooting at Central High School. Apparently, the Knox County Commission agrees with Fields, as it has voted to approve funding for nearly $195,000 for school safety enhancements.

The Knox County School Board has done a commendable job of obtaining additional funding for school safety. After the tragic shooting in August, school officials worked quickly to secure funding for the hiring of additional security officers and adding video monitoring systems among several other safety initiatives.

However, what are other school districts doing in light of Knoxville’s efforts? Are other school districts around the country reevaluating their security practices and enhancing their programs to ensure they’re doing everything possible to provide safe learning environments? The approval of additional security funding in Knoxville should lead to the approval of more security funding in districts across the country. Each individual school incident is not isolated to that individual school. Most schools share similar problems, and every school incident, whether it is at their schools or other schools, should prompt an analysis of their own security practices. Schools need to learn from Knoxville and other school incidents and beef up their own security in anticipation of an incident at their schools.

You can’t learn if you’re not safe. Dionne Fields said it simply enough, and it’s time schools invest their time and resources and focus in school security with the same passion that they exude toward school learning.

Are your schools consistently taking proactive measures toward school security? Do the events at other schools prompt your school to augment its security program?