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After Career Academy incident, board adopts School Safety and Security Plan
Summary
Following a recent incident at Waterbury Career Academy in which a firearm was located, the Waterbury Board approved a new School Safety and Security Plan (policy 5142) and instructed staff to file required plans by the state Nov. 1 deadline to preserve grant eligibility.
The Waterbury Board of Education on Nov. 19 approved a new School Safety and Security Plan (policy 5142) after Superintendent Dr. Schwartz described district response procedures and a recent security incident at Waterbury Career Academy.
Dr. Schwartz told the board that an item described in the transcript as a firearm was eventually found at the school and that school administrators and the SRO coordinated closely with the Waterbury Police Department during the response. "...the firearm or the gun that was, eventually found within the school," she said, and added that administrators were directly on the phone with Mike Tripp, the school-resource liaison with the Waterbury Police Department, and coordinating with Dan Berry.
District staff emphasized the practical need for a board-level policy: the annual safety plan must be filed by Nov. 1 with the district regional coordinator at the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, and missing that filing can jeopardize certain grants. Superintendent Schwartz described the plan as voluminous and containing sensitive material that must be kept in appropriate hands while also reflecting real-world protocols that sometimes need adjustment after an incident.
Board members asked for details on how protocols had functioned in the Career Academy response and the superintendent said the situation was "swiftly acted upon" once information came from a student to the SRO. The policy was approved; the board recorded the vote as "motion carries."
Implementation steps noted in the meeting include continuing operations-level coordination between the district's chief operating officer and local law enforcement, reviewing shelter-in-place wording to avoid over-rigid instructions in uncertain situations, and filing the required annual plan to maintain grant eligibility.
