School safety measures solidified

Milton Area School District has added more safety features in and around schools to ensure safety for both students and faculty.

“We have added an additional school resource officer this year,” said High School Co-Principal Mr. Michael Bergey. The district now has a total of three resource officers, Officer Dennis Derr, Officer Mark Evans and Officer Scott Davis, with a fourth in the process of being added, in which will rotate between all three schools, he added. All three of the resource officers are hired and employed through the Milton Borough Police and are contracted to be at the schools.

With there being more officers in and around the schools, Mr. Bergey urges for the officers to be more “proactive” and develop relationships with students.

The district has also continued to implement A.L.I.C.E. (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate) trainings for both students and staff. This training was recommended by Milton Police Department at an A.L.I.C.E Instructor’s Certification Program, according to District Safety and Security Coordinator Ms. Catherine Girton, who is also director of student services.

Many of Milton’s teachers, staff and administrators are A.L.I.C.E. certified in order to be sure that students understand the importance of the trainings and that they are prepared in an emergency situation, said Ms. Girton.

Act 55, which was passed by the state in July, changed work requirements of safety and security coordinators, increasing the amount of training required for those holding those positions. Act 55’s requirements make sure that school districts are “paying attention and being proactive with school safety” in being certain that safety policies are up to date and that teams such as threat assessment teams and student assistant teams are trained, added Ms. Girton.

“I am writing more grants to support our work.  Grant money has paid for much of the school safety improvements over the past few years, including by not limited to the Nightlocks, flip charts, security camera upgrades, bollards (pieces outside of the school building such as the orange and black balls out back of the high school to prevent vehicles from striking the building),” said Ms. Girton. Grants funded other things that may not be as recognized such as online training software, the emergency communications app, student counseling services, trainings for police and employees and other materials, she added.

None of the current grants require any trainings or safety lessons for students and staff, but there have been some in the past that did have requirements, added Ms. Girton.

Over the past few years, the district’s budget spent on safety has increased, along with the budget spent on student services that may lead into the prevention of such safety issues. School safety and security has a budget of $117, 001.00, which is 0.3 percent of the school’s total budget, while student services have a budget of $1,790, 374.00, which is 4.7 percent of the district’s overall spending budget, said Ms. Girton.