Washoe County School District outlines safety and belonging upgrades: single‑point entry pilot, alert system and layered prevention

At its Jan. 14 meeting the Washoe County School District presented a multi‑pronged update on school safety and student belonging, outlining facility hardening, new emergency alert technology, communications upgrades and prevention‑focused steps for vaping and student mental health.

District Chief Operating Officer Adam Searcy opened the presentation by describing multi‑year work to add secure perimeters and single points of entry at schools and said 2024 projects had piloted those designs at several high schools. "This is such a large topic that it encompasses not only our goal 3, but also our BEAM," Searcy said, framing the effort as facilities, operations and student supports working together.

Nut Graf: The district described short‑ and medium‑term investments intended to shorten emergency response time and improve daily campus safety while also recommending prevention and training measures to reduce substance use and support student well‑being. The update combined physical measures (entry points and window film), safety technology (Syntegix alert system, radios, visitor management) and behavioral supports (policy revisions, professional learning and student engagement).

Major facility and security items

- Single point of entry pilot: The district retrofitted vestibules and improved visitor travel patterns at McQueen, Sparks and Damonte Ranch high schools as a pilot and said similar projects are planned for additional high schools in 2025–26 and incorporated into facility modernization designs for new-build schools such as Reed High.

- Window film: Facilities reported film installations at 33 schools to limit outward visibility into occupied spaces while preserving staff sightlines; the district described the material as cost‑effective and rapid to install.

- Syntegix crisis alert system: Chief of School Police Tracy Moore described the district’s emergency alert network (Syntegix), which provides one‑button campus alerts to dispatch and maps staff locations. Moore said the district had conducted more than 154 drills and recorded 28 real activations since the start of the school year: "So far, as of December of ’24, the start of this school year, we've conducted over 154 drills. We've actually had 28 incidents. That's 2 evacuations, 16 lockdowns, and 10 secured campus," Moore said. She added, "It takes 1 second to put that school into the safety measure that we need to take."

- Communications and radios: The district added 450 Midland radios to improve on‑scene communication and stressed the value of interoperable radios that connect school sites to school police and area public safety dispatch.

- Visitor management: A new visitor screening system, Raptor, was rolled out to sites to scan IDs and flag matches with offender registries, custody orders or banned‑visitor lists and to create visitor logs.

Prevention, policy and supports

- Vaping and detection: Natalie Sanchez, chair of the Safe and Healthy Schools Commission, summarized the commission’s reviews of vape detection technology and recommended a layered approach that emphasizes prevention, staff professional learning and student supports before district‑wide detection deployment. Paul LaMarca, chief student and family supports officer, said a revised board policy on e‑cigarettes and vaping that ties consequences to prevention and training is nearing completion and he was "optimistic that within the next couple of months, it'll be before you as a draft."

- Mental‑health professional learning: The commission recommended marketing established training (e.g., Youth Mental Health First Aid) to coaches, aides, volunteers and staff so more adults in schools have basic skills to identify and refer students in distress.

- Student connection and activities: The district highlighted expansion of 6th‑grade athletics, growth in clubs and an improved system for volunteer management to increase student engagement and connection — elements staff described as part of the "belonging" side of safety.

Questions and next steps

Trustees discussed bathroom access and vape usage, consistent enforcement of any phone‑away classroom pilots, and possible funding to retrofit older bathrooms to improve privacy and safety. The Safe and Healthy Schools Commission will continue work on vaping recommendations and support the draft policy before it returns to the board.

Ending: District leaders said the update is part of continuous improvement and that funding and design decisions from last year’s budgets enabled many of the 2024 installations; they asked the board to expect follow‑up policy drafts and project schedules in coming months.