TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County Public Schools is finalizing renovations at five schools to create a new security vestibule at the main entrance.
Turns out the original design of some schools created a challenge for monitoring visitors as they entered the school.
For example, in Hillsborough High School, visitors rang a bell, then they were buzzed in but the main office was way down the hallway. That means a person was given instant access to hallways, classrooms, and staircases before ever checking in at the main office.
John Newman, Chief of Security and Emergency Management at Hillsborough County Schools explained the older the school, the more outdated the design. Hillsborough High School was built in 1927.
"After what happened in South Florida a year and a half ago, a lot of parents called. They want assurances that we’re going to be able to provide a safe environment for their kid."
The district worked to make the area more secure by adding a new vestibule. Now, visitors will be kept in a controlled area for screening before they step into school hallways.
"From a safety perspective, this is light years ahead of where we were last year," added Principal Gary Brady.
The district used sales tax referendum money to pay for the renovations.
The five schools with new security vestibules include:
Hillsborough High School
Jefferson High School
Plant City High School
Chamberlain High School
Leto High School
Other Tampa Bay school districts also enhanced security over the summer months. Here are some of their modifications:
Pasco
CrisisGo app - an emergency alerting, communication, drill, and incident management system that will add another level of safety to our organization. We started testing the app over the summer with drills at the district office and are rolling it out in phases throughout the first semester, starting with drills at high schools and the River Ridge (plus Gulf Highlands Elementary) and Wesley Chapel multi-school complexes. Middle schools will be phase 2, and elementary schools will be the final phase. After all the schools have completed drills using the app, we will introduce it to parents and demonstrate the external communication functions of the app.
CrisisGo is installed on every district device, and employees are encouraged to download the app onto their personal devices. It consists of features that will help our layered safety and security approach by:
• Creating a platform to build a better safety culture;
• Accelerating safety communication and response;
• Facilitating access to critical information;
• Providing an enhanced system for awareness and prevention; and
• Granting access to safety tools, like a panic siren and safe check-in feature, for all ages across every device.
This application will allow staff to communicate more quickly in the event of a crisis, both internally and with our law enforcement and other first responder partners.
* Door locks that remain locked to the outside but can be opened from the inside will be installed on all classroom doors by the time school starts.
* All buses transporting students are 2004 or newer, which means all have seatbelts.
* Stop the Bleed kits at all high schools, courtesy of Pasco Sheriff’s Charities and contributions collected by the Tax Collector’s office.
Pinellas
• Activating Ident-A-Kid, a new visitor management hardware/software system that will be used in all schools in 2019-2020 to streamline the check-in process and further meet the requirements of the Jessica Lunsford Act.
• The introduction of Intralogic Solutions, an emergency lockdown system that empowers any staff member on district property to initiate a lockdown during an emergency and immediately inform school and district administration and the police department.
• Added the position of major and hired Major Cheryl Johnson after her brief retirement from St. Petersburg Police Department. Major Johnson brings more than 32 years of law enforcement experience.
• Implementing “Safe Plans,” a new platform that allows individual schools to create, modify and execute school safety plans.
Sarasota
Just yesterday, our Board approved revisions to our existing Emergency Drill policy. Most was updating language and terminology, but the policy now includes active shooter drills once a month, the same frequency as other existing drills like fire drills and evacuation drills.
Also, this school year is the first year all of our traditional public elementary, middle and high schools will have a School Resource Officer from the Sarasota County Schools Police Department. Each traditional public elementary school and middle school will have (1) SRO, while each high school will have (2) SROs. Going into the 2019-20 school year, the police department will expand in both leadership and field staff, and include the following sworn law enforcement officers to meet personnel requirements:
• (1) Chief of Police
• (2) Lieutenants
• (6) Sergeants
• (5) Regional Response Officers
• (43) School Resource Officers
Hardee
(1) New security fencing installed at all eight schools
(2) 62 additional security cameras installed
(3) Raptor security systems installed in all eight schools for entry on to campuses
(4) Threat assessment trainings currently in progress
(5) Mental health trainings currently in progress for all employees
(6) One school resource officer on staff at all elementary schools and two school resource officers on staff at each of the secondary schools
(7) Active shooter trainings are currently in progress throughout the school district
(8) Additional social workers and school psychologist added to our staff this summer
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