Rogers hires former law enforcement officer as safety director; reports on drills, audits and SRO coverage

Keith Foster, the district'''s director of safety and security, briefed the Rogers School Board on Jan. 20 about the district'''s current safety layers, planned audits and ongoing coordination with local police.

Foster, who recently joined the district after a career in law enforcement, told the board the district already has many standard safety measures in place: a visitor management system (Raptor), limited building access with locked doors, a districtwide camera network, an anonymous tip line, and monthly drills at schools. He emphasized that the next phase is making sure staff know and can use those systems effectively. "What we have left to do now involves fine tuning our systems, doing the tweaking and making sure that it's functioning and working as well as it can," Foster said.

He listed several near-term actions: - Conduct safety audits and site assessments (district will perform 10 school site assessments this year; state requires a site assessment every three years). - Continue monthly drills and functional tabletop and active-shooter scenario training (Navigate360 and ALICE training are in use). - Review and standardize emergency medical and opioid kits with nurses and school health staff.

Foster described school resource officer (SRO) coverage: six Rogers Police Department SROs assigned across the district and two Lowell SROs covering Lowell schools. "With our Rogers SROs, you have one at each high school and then the four middle schools," he explained; Lowell has one at its elementary and one at Tucker. Board members asked whether that coverage left large schools under-protected; Foster said SRO numbers are constrained by police staffing, and noted the district supplements SROs with on-campus personnel: "At the high school, you have a dedicated certified personnel who is a TOSA . . . and a parking lot security attendant" who help with the larger campus population.

The board discussed options raised by other districts including the use of certified school security officers (CSSOs) or contracted security assistance for elementary schools. Foster said the district will review options and noted the cost to add CSSOs could be sizeable and would affect other staffing choices.

Why this matters: Foster framed his work as ensuring existing systems operate reliably and that staff are trained to use them. He emphasized risk-based prioritization: some catastrophic events are low-probability but high-impact, while others (for example, severe weather such as tornadoes) are more likely; the district must allocate limited resources accordingly.

Ending: Foster said he will continue safety audits across schools, work with police partners on SRO deployment, and develop proposals for the board if the district considers adding CSSOs or contracted security staff. Board members requested a retreat discussion focused on security staffing and priorities.