West Aurora USD 129 outlines school-safety upgrades, restorative-practices expansion and student health supports

Martine Nearing, executive director of student and family services for West Aurora School District 129, told the board Feb. 18 the district has been strengthening school safety, restorative practices, student health and attendance supports.

Nearing said school safety work includes a robust drill schedule, locked vestibules in all buildings, an updated grid-style building map set to help first responders, and new staff safety training. “School safety really isn't something that we can do or check off,” she told the board, adding the district will deploy RapidSOS integrated with the Raptor visitor system so staff can connect to 911 from a single app.

The nut graf: District leaders framed these changes as part of a single effort to make classrooms safer and to reduce discipline through restorative practices while improving attendance and on-site health capacity.

Nearing said the district is finalizing CRG-updated building maps with coordinate grids so first responders can find incident locations faster. She described a new “safety competency badge” written by safety officers Talley and Fisher to certify staff in protocols and situational awareness. The district also reported regular daily communication with local police and the State Terrorism and Intelligence Center and said it participates in a regional school-safety administrators association.

Dr. McCall, who led the restorative-practices portion of the presentation, said the district’s coaches facilitate restorative circles in classrooms, lunch groups and staff sessions. “We are not just looking at restorative practices just for our students,” McCall said, describing work with staff, families and student–family circles. She said the program aims to promote equitable discipline and build students’ conflict-resolution skills; early indicators show discipline numbers are “a little bit on the decline” though “it's still very early.”

On family engagement, Nearing and McCall described parent cafés and broader efforts to retool the district’s community equity advisory council into more usable family-facing programming. Nearing said parent cafés are centrally located at Greenman but draw families from across the district and that the district hopes to scale the model.

Attendance strategies include a shift from punitive to supportive approaches, Nearing said: “We have moved to nudge letters,” which notify families when a student has missed multiple days and open a dialogue about supports. Staff described “door-knock” home-visit notices left by outreach coordinators when families are not reached.

On health services, the district said its school-health team includes 17 certified school nurses, four registered nurses (three pursuing certified school-nurse credentials) and 12 health assistants. The district noted ongoing partnerships: the Jeff Craig Family Resource Center with the VNA (710 completed appointments this school year) and an on-site micro food pantry in partnership with Marie Wilkinson. Nearing said the VNA partnership has sped the process to get excluded students compliant with immunization and physical requirements back into school.

Board members asked about capacity and outcomes. Nearing said Jeff Craig staff aim to provide 12–13 appointments per day and acknowledged some no-shows among scheduled visits. McCall and Nearing said they will continue to monitor outcomes and return with more substantial discipline and attendance metrics in future reports.

Ending: District leaders said the work is early but that investments in training, communication tools, restorative coaches and health partnerships are intended to reduce exclusions, shorten the time out of school for immunization‑related exclusions and improve attendance and school climate over multiple years.