Jeff Davis superintendent outlines multi-year push to prioritize school safety

John Hall, superintendent of Jeff Davis Parish Schools, told the K-12 School Safety Task Force at the Louisiana State Senate that he made “school safety … the umbrella that I work under” when he took the job and used assessments, grants, local bond renewals and maintenance funds to redesign campuses.

Hall said the district of about 5,200 students and 13 schools moved from having “no vestibules in a school” to near-universal single points of entry, classroom and hallway cameras and other physical upgrades after a multiyear effort that combined grant funding, bond renewals and local stakeholder buy-in. “We used a grant — it was a $500,000 grant from Centers for Safe Schools — about $500,000 worth of metal detectors,” Hall said. He also told the task force the district relied on expiring and renewed school bonds, and on maintenance funds, to cover large construction priorities.

The superintendent described practical challenges during construction and implementation — disrupting pickup and drop-off, moving parking and temporary classrooms, and persuading staff and community members to accept inconveniences such as longer walk routes to single-entry vestibules. Hall said the district prioritized safety features when budgets required cuts: “I actually said no to things that schools needed because I was putting safety first.”

Hall credited outside expertise and training for the district’s progress. He described bringing in Centers for Safe Schools for assessments and training, and said partnering with architects and local law enforcement helped the district sequence work and align stakeholders. He also noted non-physical steps: changing response policies from shelter-in-place toward options that allow evacuation when safe, expanding crisis drills at varied times and locations, and rolling out a Rave panic button integrated with the parish 911 center.

On costs and tradeoffs, Hall said some Title funding previously used for SROs was not available statewide in one year, forcing the district to find roughly $250,000 from other sources. He told the task force the community supported bond measures, and that a recent bond package passed “by 70% of the community.”

Hall said a close, unanimous school board and an involved local superintendent-level staff member helped implement the work and sustain it through a four-year construction schedule. “We have 13 board members, 13 board members unanimously support this every single time,” he said.

The superintendent offered to host tours for lawmakers and task force members so they could see completed phases and schools still in earlier stages of conversion.

Hall’s remarks were heavy on operational detail and funding choices rather than new policy recommendations; he urged continued support for state resources such as Centers for Safe Schools training and evaluation assistance.

The task force followed with questions about funding, community outreach and the practical implications of retrofitting older campuses, which Hall addressed by describing specific design decisions, signage, and tradeoffs over trees, playground locations and stadium staging.

As Hall summarized, the effort combined volunteer and professional expertise, grant dollars, maintenance funding and bond proceeds to make broad, multi-year change that prioritized school safety before other capital improvements.