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Board work session updates safety upgrades and school-culture efforts; visitor management and detection systems underway
Summary
Superintendent Jared Gordon and staff reviewed safety investments and inclusive-school initiatives, describing facility upgrades (vestibules, fences), a visitor-management system, camera and intercom improvements, an OmnAlert weapons-detection system in testing, SRO contracts, and investments in counseling and student-support services.
Superintendent Jared Gordon reviewed the district's recent investments to improve school safety and student belonging during a work session on the district strategic plan's Safe & Inclusive component.
Gordon said the district has focused on creating single access points at nearly all schools through fences and secured vestibules, and has deployed a visitor-management system to track and badge campus visitors. "We have been able to create with fencing and vestibules a single access point," Gordon said, and added that the systems are paired with badging, photos and staff processes so adults on campus are accounted for.
Gordon listed additional actions: upgraded cameras to address blind spots, improved intercom systems, seismic retrofits on some buildings done with grant support, lighting upgrades at Findlay Field, vape detectors at the high school and a bus-monitoring system for parents. He said the district spent a mix of grant and general-fund dollars, including approximately $10 million of ESSER funds directed to safety-related projects; he characterized total safety-related investments over several years as "comfortably" in the tens of millions of dollars.
Gordon said the district has contracted with the county sheriff's office for school resource officers (SROs) and has hired staff to operationalize safety systems. He also said the district received a grant for OmnAlert, a weapons-detection system, and that the district was "ready for testing" though OmnAlert had not been made live at the time of the meeting.
Board members discussed the emotional impact of safety drills. One board member encouraged fellow board members to participate in a drill to better understand the experience of staff and students. Gordon and other leaders emphasized balancing necessary preparedness with attention to students' emotional responses.
On inclusivity and student supports, Gordon outlined work to redesign services for students with special education needs, investments in certified behavioral/mental-health staff (CDSs), reduced rates of expulsions and restraints, an ed center for alternative programming, free school meals districtwide and partnerships with local organizations such as Thrive Umqua and Umpqua Health.
The work session included a short Link Crew video showcasing the high school peer-mentoring program and a description of a new "WEB" transition program in middle schools designed to help sixth graders adjust; the board and presenters characterized both programs as tools to strengthen belonging during transitional grades.
No formal board action was taken during the work session; the discussion was presented as an update and an opportunity for board direction.
