Safety in the schools seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. For parents who are worried about what our schools are doing to protect our children, there are two upcoming forums worth noting.
One is tailored to families with the youngest Southborough students, and the other is for the whole district.
Last night, Superintendent Christine Johnson issued an invitation to a forum next Tuesday night:
Earlier in March, I provided a One Call communication entitled “Making the Connection – Safe School Readiness” which provided information on our District’s proactive and responsive safety protocols. As a follow-up, and to provide an opportunity to meet with school administrators and fire and police safety officials, we are inviting you to join us on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 in the JFK Auditorium at Algonquin Regional High School from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM for an interactive presentation and dialogue on school safety readiness.
(For a reminder of what the school had to say about their readiness efforts earlier this month, click here.)
Safety is also the subject of a joint Parents’/Principal’s Coffee being held by Finn and Woodward Schools which has been moved up from next week.
The presentation on “Safe School Readiness” will be held Thursday, March 29th from 9:30 – 10:30 am in the Finn School Library.
Principals Clayton Ryan and Steve Mucci have invited parents of students from both schools to attend.
Updated (3/28/18 9:50 am): I was notified by Finn School that the coffee has been moved up from April 5th.
I’m running for School Committee and school safety is one of my top issues. I went to the presentation at Finn and it was really good. The principals and Christine Johnson went into detail about the preventative programs and ALICE protocol that they’ve implemented to help keep our schools safe, and answered many questions from parents. I liked hearing about how the school administrators and teachers are working to help kids feel connected to the school community, and are taking an early and proactive approach to our students’ mental health.
I do still have concerns, I admit. For example, I’ve heard that at times, random people are still accessing school playgrounds during school hours. I’d like to know how that can be prevented — I didn’t get to ask that question. I also asked about having resource officers at each school and was told it’s something that’s being considered. I’d love to know what that means, exactly. There is a bill in the Mass legislature called “An Act promoting local control and effective training of school resource officers,” but I’m not sure it’s a bill that would, for example, ensure our schools each get an officer (something I’m going to ask Carolyn Dykema, who’s a petitioner of the bill).
Separately, I’m also concerned about the openness of the high school in the evening hours and have some other specific questions about our middle/high schools’ safety that hopefully will get answered at the 4/3 presentation.
Generally, the presentation was great and I was happy to see our schools’ administrators getting the word out about how they are helping keep our kids safe. But it would be good to know some more specifics, and hear how we’re going to fund initiatives that we need to put in place.