Parent Forum Agenda

WHS – 4/26/18

School Safety and Climate @ WHS:

  • Building Safety
  • Active shooter drills?
  • Lockdown drill practice for students
  • NYS requires 4 lockdown drills per school year
  • District Safety Committee attended an active shooter seminar from the NYS Troopers- community members were invited
  • The seminar will be offered to staff also
  • Region- active shooter drills with staff only (not with students in the building)- helps to train law enforcement and emergency responders
  • What is in place now?
  • Gym lobby doors being locked to increase safety with a single point of entry
  • All doors are locked during the day
  • Secure entrance
  • Currently in the process of hiring a monitor for the door
  • Propped doors set off an alert to the Director of Facilities and he cancheck the cameras right away to see what is going on
  • Video cameras are high quality and there is complete coverage of the halls and common areas
  • Rapid Responder?- not currently but we are going to start using Navigate and a badge system that scans licenses
  • *How easy would it be to hack into the school's camera system if someone wanted to cause harm?- Mr. Mitchell will check with IT and share information
  • Officer Kraft is the only School Resource Officer- Waterloo PD, Sheriff's Office, and Troopers have helped when Officer Kraft is not available
  • Vaping? Is there a decline?
  • Common trend among teenagers
  • Most vaping was reported as occurring in the bathrooms- locked bathrooms for a while
  • There has been less discipline referrals for vaping- in addition to ongoing conversations with students, more severe consequences have helped in the reduction- due to the possibility of THC and synthetic extracts being used in vapes
  • The majority of students do not want the vaping and appreciate the decline
  • Students were unhappy with locked bathrooms. It helped the staff to supervise better. The bathrooms in the main lobby are unlocked again. Bathrooms near the cafeteria remain locked except during lunches.
  • Any vaping devices is considered drug paraphernalia- will automatically result in an Out of School Suspension
  • What happens during Out of School Suspension?
  • 2 hours per day of tutoring- can be offered through a 1:1 tutor or 3-5 school at the high school
  • Incentives to return to school sooner- can include drug and alcohol counseling, referral to Seneca County Additions, tutoring is attended regularly, student prepares a presentation for the re-entry- majority of students and families use these options to return sooner
  • A lot of students choose to continue with the drug and alcohol counseling
  • How do schools investigate?
  • Every student is entitled to Due Process
  • Anytime a student is suspended for longer than 5 days there is a Superintendent's Hearing with an attorney who acts as an impartial hearing officer
  • Investigations occur prior to a recommendation for a consequence- mat include the SRO who has specialized training
  • Parents and students have an opportunity to present evidence and question witnesses
  • Mental Health
  • Transitions in the Hallways- Has there been training for staff if there is a potential altercation- TCIS (Therapeutic Crisis Intervention in Schools)- gaining two trainers to then have in house training for staff
  • Counseling is offered through the county
  • Waterloo currently has two counselors through the county (one in MS and one in HS), 2 MS counselors, 3 HS counselors, and a district social worker
  • Character Education
  • Need to teach students to be kind to each other
  • Bullying was addressed in how to create conversations with students about how to appropriately deal with sticking up for the right thing
  • Upcoming initiatives are exciting
  • Currently using advisory and Tribe Time
  • Embedded character education in instruction
  • Next year is looking at longer advisory period and Tribe Time
  • More community service would be helpful and maybe get students to stop thinking about themselves and to think about others
  • Some districts have community service as a graduation requirement- but must still let students feel what community service is about and not just be compliant
  • Students need to interact with one and other
  • Pin and Key- has a community service
  • Community Service should start young to install this as a value as students get older
  • Mindfulness training for staff and students, Psychology course, Sociology course, Real-life math applications
  • Academic Achievement
  • Other?
  • Transitions from 5-6 and from 8-9... what are we doing to improve
  • Assembly communication to all parents in a timely manner would be helpful
  • All connect ed calls should have an email too to give parents information in writing too

Action Proposals?