Cazenovia — There seems to be a lot of public violence reported in the national news lately – occurring both in and out of schools – and people are concerned, especially for the safety and security of their children. At last week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Matt Reilly shared with the board a letter he received asking what the Cazenovia Central School District is doing to keep its students and faculty safe. This spurred a conversation at the meeting during which Reilly said that the district has been and will continue to be reviewing and improving its emergency situation procedures.
The Oct. 15 letter, submitted by local parent Tara Hartley, stated that she was concerned about the safety of students and staff in today’s “very loosely controlled gun climate in our society, and asked what the district was doing to prepare its students for potential shooting situations that could occur during the school day.
“In 2015 our country has seen 52 school shootings leaving 32 dead, and we still have three months left in the year. While the district routinely prepares students and faculty for fires in our school, what is being done to prepare them for shootings?” Hartley asked. She said the district spends countless energy and time having students and staff perform fire drills, but, she asked, how many school fires result in death? The last she could find was 1961, she said.
She also cited the situation that occurred in 2014 when bullets were found in a Cazenovia High School hallway, causing a lockdown, a police presence and building search for potential weapons and creating great distress among students, staff and community members. No weapons nor malicious intent were ever found, and the consensus was that it was most likely an unintended accident by a student who forgot they had bullets in their bag.
continued — “The proceedings of that day received much criticism from both faculty and students as to the level of readiness the district was in,” Hartley wrote. “Clearly, there was no procedure to follow that faculty and staff were well versed in.”
“It’s an important letter and an important topic,” Reilly said during the Oct. 26 regular board meeting. “And I wholeheartedly agree — we need to do more.”
Reilly, who was not superintendent during the 2014 incident, said the district team has been addressing this issue in its regular meetings and already has plans to perform a “lockdown” drill in December to prepare for just such an emergency. Reilly said the district also hopes to have two more lockdown drills in the spring.
“Every year our response plans and safety protocols are reviewed with an eye toward improvement. I think well get better every year and one way is through practice, which is what we’ll do,” he said. “My belief is that we need to get as good at lockdown drills as we are at fire drills.”
Reilly said the level of “precision” and “automaticity” with which Cazenovia staff and students handle fire drills is an impressive thing to see, and the district is striving for that same high level of execution in lockdown drills.
Parents and students will be informed by letters home of the general time during which these new drills will be conducted in the district, Reilly said. “We don’t want these to be anxiety inducing drills. We want people to take them seriously, but don’t want people to be uncomfortable with this,” he said.
In addition to drills, the district has been addressing its district security measures both through the currently ongoing capital improvement project in the district, but also through the upcoming use of state money (through the Smart Schools Bond Act) that is specifically designated for district technology and security improvements, Reilly said.
continued — While the district does not want to reveal all of its security measures, some of the improvements that have and will occur include updated entryway security at all three district school buildings and new id badges for district staff, he said.
At the school board’s next regular meeting on Nov. 16, members will see a presentation by both the district technology director and buildings and grounds superintendent as to how the district can best utilize these anticipated state funds, Reilly said.
Also at the meeting, the board:
—Heard from its auditor that the district’s annual audit was “very good” with no issues or significant comments included in the report. The district’s reporting was “in accordance with our highest standards,” said Len Carissimo of D’Arcangelo & Company, LLP. “It is the best opinion we can give you.”
—Approved a contract for architectural services with King and King Architectural Services to remove and replace floor finishes in the middle school and the high school as part of a $100,000 small Capital Project.
—Approved a bond resolution for $313,608 to pay for the three new school busses recently received by the district. The bus purchases were approved by voters during the May 2015 election.
—Approved the renewal of multiple agreements to have four combined athletic teams during the school year. Approved combination teams were: Cazenovia and Otselic Valley modified wrestling; Cazenovia and Hamilton ice hockey; Cazenovia and Hamilton girls lacrosse; Cazenovia and Fabius-Pompey varsity wrestling. All of these combination teams have been approved by the Cazenovia school board at least once in the past. None of these four combination teams will cost the Cazenovia district any money.
The next meeting of the Cazenovia Board of Education will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, in the board meeting room at the district office.