District details campus safety work, rollout of Share911 and staffing model

Matt Groenic, the district's safety and security lead, told the Chino Valley Unified School District Governing Board that the district's safety team spends daily time building relationships with students and staff and running monthly evacuation and lockdown drills across campuses.

The update focused on operational steps the district is taking to reduce response time and improve reunification after incidents. Groenic said staff are remapping every building's doors and windows so first responders can navigate campuses faster and are rolling out Share911, a districtwide incident and response management system. "Anyone on any of the campuses can activate an incident," Groenic said. "It's not a, hey, can I start something? ... as long as they have their cell phone with them, they can actually start an emergency response."

Why it matters: the district is moving beyond ad-hoc radio communications to a digital system meant to give administrators, teachers, first responders and parents one place to see who is accounted for and to push real-time notifications. Groenic said Share911 will allow staff to mark students as safe during evacuations and will purge visitor data nightly so temporary visitors do not remain listed indefinitely.

Board members and staff also discussed technology and physical upgrades. Groenic said the district has a years-long plan to add more perimeter and interior cameras and to use threat-assessment reports provided without charge by the local police department to identify physical vulnerabilities. "We're not trying to turn this into a prison," he said, "but there are physical vulnerabilities that we need to be aware of." He described campus mapping, camera deployments and a reunification drill in which students would be bused to an off-site location to practice real-world logistics.

Staffing and grant structure: Groenic and Superintendent Angie Daniels explained the district's mix of school safety officers (SSOs) and school resource officers (SROs). Two staff are SSOs and two are SROs placed full-time at campuses; the SROs are active patrol officers employed by Chino Valley Police Department who can file truancy and juvenile reports. Groenic said his position is grant-funded; state grant rules require officers paid from some grants to be attached to a police department. "In order to use the grant for a school resource officer or a school safety officer, that officer has to be attached to a police department of some kind," the superintendent said.

Coordination with county and dispatch: Daniels described steps to close a prior communications gap with Yavapai County Sheriff's Office (YCSO). She said county dispatch will now flag 911 calls that could affect district operations and notify the district automatically; YCSO personnel will also join the district's Share911 group for immediate alerts. Lieutenant Daniel Morales of YCSO, who covers the area, also visits campus sites to become familiar with facilities, Daniels said.

Board reaction and next steps: Board members thanked Groenic for the work and asked about timelines. Groenic said campus QR codes and student-parent links to Share911 are still being put into the system and that the district is adding staff and parent groups to notification tiers. The board did not take formal action on the update; it was presented for information and discussion.

Ending: District leaders said they will continue campus mapping, run reunification drills, and complete the phased camera and Share911 rollout. Staff emphasized that the technology is intended to support, not replace, the on-campus presence of safety personnel.