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Newark superintendent outlines four-year overhaul of student safety and security
Summary
Superintendent Sue Hasnauer presented a four-year safety-and-security review for Newark Central School District, citing expanded threat-assessment teams, technology upgrades, new command-center capabilities and restorative disciplinary programs aimed at reducing referrals and improving safety perceptions.
Superintendent Sue Hasnauer told the Newark Central School District board that improving school safety has been a central focus since her hire in February 2021 and grew into a multi-pronged effort covering policy, communication, physical security and social-emotional supports.
"How can we proactively enhance school safety and security through a multi tiered holistic approach?" Hasnauer asked as she summarized the district's work, saying the effort started with policy revisions (including work on policy 61 80) and the adoption of tools such as ParentSquare and an anonymous safe-school helpline. She said the goal was both to harden facilities and to ensure students feel safe from a social-emotional perspective.
Hasnauer noted district demographics as context for the work: "We have approximately 1,800 students from UPK to 12" across five buildings, and she said about 58% of students are economically disadvantaged, up from roughly 40% several years ago. Those shifts, she said, increase student mobility and complicated continuity of supports.
The presentation connected policy changes to operational steps: staff training on investigations and deployment of communication tools, the creation of building- and district-level threat-assessment teams, and coordination with outside partners. Hasnauer said the work aims to rebuild trust after past incidents and to highlight positive student achievement alongside safety improvements.
Board members did not take formal votes tied to the presentation; the session moved afterward into routine business and committee reports. Presenters flagged several next steps, including revising reunification procedures, piloting weapons-detection technology, and further developing student-accountability tools.
