Spearfish School District adopts Standard Response Protocol, approves school resource officer agreement with city

Spearfish School District 40-2 trustees on Sept. 8 heard a presentation on the Standard Response Protocol and approved a memorandum of understanding with the City of Spearfish establishing a school resource officer agreement.

The presentation was delivered by Officer Sam Funk, who identified himself as a Spearfish police officer and the district—s school resource officer. Funk described the district—s adoption of the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), developed by the I Love You Guys Foundation, and explained how the district is combining SRP with its existing ALICE approach.

"It is called the Standard Response Protocol, SRP," Funk said. "We've just incorporated [it] with our ALICE protocols that we've been using up till now." He summarized SRP as a five-action framework—hold, secure, lockdown, shelter and evacuate—and said the language is intended to simplify responses and reduce confusion during incidents.

Funk told the board the district intends for each building to practice all five actions at least once this school year. He described "hold" as a way to clear hallways for nonemergency needs; "secure" as a response to threats outside a building that keeps students inside while allowing class changes if needed; and "lockdown" as a response to a suspected threat inside the building. He also discussed other measures such as turning off phones or setting them to Do Not Disturb during a lockdown to preserve first-responder communications.

"If they know that the threat is on the other side of the building, evacuate," Funk said, describing how SRP and ALICE are intended to be used together depending on whether a threat is known to be internal or external.

Separately, the board took formal action to approve the school resource officer memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the City of Spearfish. The board president requested a motion to approve the MOU; the motion was made and seconded, and the president called for the vote. "All those in favor, say aye," the president said, and the board recorded the item as approved.

The superintendent told the board the MOU had been reviewed by the district—s attorney and the city attorney. "I think it was well vetted," the superintendent said, adding that current and former police leadership had reviewed the agreement.

Votes at a glance - Approve School Resource Officer Memorandum of Understanding with City of Spearfish — motion moved and seconded; board president called for aye; outcome: approved. (Motion text as read: "approve school resource officer memorandum of understanding with city of Spearfish.") - Approve special board meeting (school board training) for Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. — motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved. - Consent agenda (including recognition of Spearfish Baseball Association as a non-school club activity) — motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved. - Approve regular meeting minutes of Aug. 11, 2025 — motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved. - Approve financial reports and bills — motion moved and seconded; outcome: approved.

Discussion and context Officer Funk said the SRP provides a single vocabulary for actions that can be applied to many scenarios rather than training staff and students on numerous scenario-specific responses. He said the district had conducted hold, secure and lockdown drills and that the middle and high schools had completed secure and lockdown drills on the day of the board meeting.

The superintendent emphasized the district—s strategic goal of practicing all five SRP actions annually and noted that staff training will continue with the district—s partners.

What the board directed or decided - Decision: Board approved the SRO MOU with the City of Spearfish. - Direction: District staff will continue to implement SRP training and schedule the required drills so each building practices all five actions this school year. - Decision: Board approved the September 24 special board meeting for training and approved routine consent items, minutes and financial reports.

Ending The board adjourned after completing the agenda. No executive session was held.