CCISD discusses campus security upgrades, will be part of statewide intruder audit

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Following the May 24, 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, school districts across the state have been mandated to review their safety and security plans and update those plans for the 2022-2023 school year.

In a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott on June 2, 2022 to Mike Morath, Commissioner of Texas Education Agency, Abbott said that the state must “redouble our efforts to ensure that our schools provide a safe and secure environment for the children of Texas.”

S.B. 11, as part of the 2019 legislative session, requires districts to adopt rules to ensure that building standards for school district facilities are safe and secure, and Abbott said that districts must now have reviewed and amended any such rules by September 1, 2022, to ensure that school building standards provide a secure and safe environment for children, teachers, and staff.

Abbott also directed the TEA to instruct school districts to identify actions that they can further take to make their campuses more secure and states that school districts should be instructed to conduct weekly inspections of exterior doors to verify they are secure during school hours.

TEA guidance was released earlier this summer, outlining the safety and security requirements for schools. The Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) also announced that they are developing a reporting tool to certify the districts’ policies and procedures. The reporting tool opened by September 1, with responses required by September 9, 2022.

Each district should have a school safety and security committee meeting prior to the school year where members review campus needs, the Emergency Operations Plan, the Active Threat Plan and district action for all five phases of emergency management, also addressing portable buildings. Districts should have school behavioral threat assessment teams and train them as needed, ensuring the team reviews the procedures for each campus.

The district should also train staff and substitutes on district and campus-specific safety procedures prior to the start of the school year and schedule drills before the start of the school year. The district should review its visitor check-in procedures and assess the access control procedures regarding single access points, locked instruction room doors and exterior door locks.

The Texas School Safety Center will also start conducting intruder detection audits this month at Texas school districts. Before the audits, the TxSSC will coordinate with district administration and local law enforcement for the month of the audit, but the exact day of the audit will not be revealed to the district.

Audits will test whether intruders can gain access to a campus through unlocked doors, but auditors will not simulate an armed intruder. Auditors will wear plain clothes and will self-identify that they are with the Texas School Safety Center, should a school employee stop them. Audits will begin September 12 and continue throughout the 2022-2023 school year.

The goal is that that by the end of the school year, every school district in Texas will have had at least one campus audited. While the results of the audits will not be released to the public, schools will be given the results and asked to remedy any problems that are revealed.

Copperas Cove ISD officials claim that the district has been proactive rather than reactive when it comes to making safety and security upgrades across the district’s 11 campuses.

Security/safety features include. locked exterior and interior doors and secure entry vestibules which add an extra layer of security between visitors and the rest of the school.

CCISD’s Deputy Superintendent Rick Kirkpatrick explained that the district did conduct a Partial Summer Safety Audit as well as an Exterior Door Audit prior to the school year starting, and any issues discovered were sent to the district’s maintenance department for resolution.

Administrators are also required to conduct the Exterior Door Audit every week throughout the school year.

The district has also added Secure Entry Vestibules at House Creek Elementary School, S.C. Lee Junior High School, Williams/Ledger Elementary School, Clements/Parsons Elementary School and Copperas Cove Junior High School this summer at a cost of approximately $400,000, according to Kirkpatrick.

“As part of the greater renovations and additions ongoing, Martin Walker and Mae Stevens Early Learning Academy had secure vestibules built,” Kirkpatrick said. “These vestibules have reached substantial completion and are operational. The remaining campuses already had secure vestibules from prior renovations.”

Additionally, all classroom doors have levers that must be unlocked with a key and cannot be left unlocked, which prevents a teacher from having to run to lock their door during a crisis.  

The district also utilizes Alertus, which is an internal crisis communication system that is used for notification of staff during a crisis. It is incorporated into all drills conducted on the campuses.

Parents are also notified during a crisis through School Messenger (automated calls), Skyward and Schoology about emergency situations.

Kirkpatrick explained that the district does not announce drills because “the intent of a drill is to practice the actual response to the crisis.”

“The district’s expectation is that drills are conducted with the same urgency as would occur during a crisis,” he added.

Each of the district’s campuses and facilities, as well as the district, have Emergency Operations Plans for dealing with possible emergencies.

The EOP also mentions that mandatory emergency drills are performed on each campus according to a schedule.

“CCISD has taken a very proactive approach to school safety and security,” Kirkpatrick said. “All Texas school districts are required to complete a safety and security audit once every three years. CCISD made the decision to hire an outside security auditor to perform our audits and these were completed in the 2021-2022 school year.

“The auditor stated in his analysis, ‘In my 18 years of doing this type of work, CCISD’s EOP (Emergency Operations Plan) is the best I have seen come out of a district.’”