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New Office of School Safety and Security outlines staffing, tabletop drills and possible weapon‑screening pilots
Summary
Director Ralph Bradley gave a comprehensive overview of the district’s safety office, describing staffing, tabletop exercises, ALICE training, partnerships with ACPD and plans to evaluate weapons‑screening devices, visitor management and additional vape detection in secondary schools.
Ralph Bradley, director of the Office of School Safety and Security, delivered a districtwide overview to the school board on Jan. 9 describing staffing, recent practices and planned initiatives for school safety.
Bradley said his office — created in October 2023 — now has two safety and security coordinators and that the district reassigned and reclassified certain school‑based positions as school security officers to meet Virginia Department of Criminal Justice and VDOE expectations. The district also has school safety coaches at secondary schools and receives SRO (school resource officer) support from the Albemarle County Police Department at Albemarle High School.
Bradley described program and practice updates: a revised crisis‑management template for schools, tabletop exercises at each school to walk staff through roles and responsibilities, regular ALICE training for staff and a working group to design student‑appropriate safety training. He said the district’s CRG critical‑incident mapping is available to first responders and noted work on visitor management systems, expansion of security cameras and continued assessment for CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) improvements.
On weapons screening, Bradley said the district piloted portable gate screening units at high‑school athletic events and formed a working group on Nov. 24 to examine possible daily use at high schools. That group has sought input from administrators, families, PTAs and law‑enforcement partners and conducted site visits to other localities to assess practices. A policy amendment to enable screening has been drafted for board review; Bradley said the board may see action on this topic as early as March or for fall implementation depending on decisions and funding.
Board members asked about funding needs. Bradley identified several areas that could require investment in future budgets, including broader weapons screening (if adopted), additional vape detection devices for secondary schools, transportation security upgrades (bus cameras and communications) and continued access‑control improvements at school buildings.
Bradley emphasized the office’s partnership with Student Services for mental‑health triage and said the office plans continued community engagement, including seminars on problem areas such as vaping and a planned regional active‑shooter exercise that would involve external emergency responders and university partners.
