Ronald Baker and Zoe Surles
There have been a lot of changes in the school’s security methods at Central and the Unit 4 School District, including their new methods to try and make Central a safer place. Some of the new methods for school safety this year will be centered around personnel, technology and student identification.
One of the biggest people involved in the process of making these security changes has been Principal Williams, who mentioned some of the problems in the community when asked about the changes. Principal Williams said that these changes are due to “the increasing gun violence in our community and other communities across the nation.” He stated that representatives from building administration and District level administration have been meeting and discussing security options for a while and that “school security and student/staff safety has always been, and must always be our number one priority.”
Principal Williams said for the Personnel aspect of the method “our Board of Education and our District leaders have committed resources for more personnel and for more training of that personnel.” One example of personnel changes includes the addition of Student Support Advocates at the middle and high schools to help assist with security, while at the same time working to build relationships with students. Principal Williams said that this has really helped, as these Student Support Advocates have been found to be a good source of "voice" for the students. While there have been additions to personnel this year, he wants people to keep in mind that the District is still having trouble filling positions right now.
He later continued on to the Technology aspect and said “this year our BOE and District leaders are also committing much more to technology to help enhance our security efforts… Our IT Director has been a great help with all of this and is truly committed to continuing to better use technology for safety and security purposes." He said that many more cameras and systems will be applied to view what is happening in school areas, both inside and outside. In regards to student IDs, he said that there are “plans to include scanners for student IDs to help ensure access and attendance” as well as generally trying to make sure the school is a safer place.
Principal Williams then briefly went over some highlights of this year, which he said included more hall monitors to “help supervise our hallways,” the hiring of an outside security firm, AGB, to “provide specially trained security personnel for our schools on a daily basis,” more security for large athletic events, and the hiring of a District level administrator, Mr. Jeremy Canales, as the new Director of Security.