Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) held a collaborative safety and security meeting on Monday afternoon with representatives from multiple local law enforcement agencies and emergency response departments.
The meeting, held in the boardroom of the ACPS District Office, was organized by interim Superintendent Dr. Kamela Patton and the district’s safety and security team, with the purpose of bringing all safety partners, including law enforcement, fire marshals and district leadership, together to make sure they are aligned in their approach to school safety.
In an interview with media members before the meeting, Patton said this was the first time ACPS has had a joint safety and security meeting.
“I think what we want to try and do is make sure that we’re leveraging all of our partnerships and resources together,” she said. “These folks that are helping us today, their main resource and area is all around safety. So, if we can leverage their incredible knowledge and partnerships to help us when we have about 20 or 50 things on our plate, that only strengthens what we’re doing.”
Among the partners present for the roundtable meeting were Alachua County Sheriff Chad Scott, Alachua County Fire Chief Harold Theus, Emergency Management Director Jen Grice, Gainesville Police Chief Nelson Moya and Newberry Fire Chief Jason Lyman. Lt. Mark Barley, from the Santa Fe College Police Department (SFPD), was also in attendance on behalf of SFPD Chief Ed Book.
Before starting her presentation, Patton gave law enforcement and emergency response experts in the room an overview of what the meeting would entail, including a refresher on state requirements as they relate to school safety. She told the professionals that a good portion of the meeting would be spent on hearing their suggestions.
“We’re going to capture those thoughts and then ultimately…as a collective group, prioritize,” Patton said. “We can’t do 40 things at one time, realistically. So, what would be the top 5 [priorities] that the group would collectively say, ‘we think this is where we should be heading.’ And then hopefully, [we] come back again in six months from now. We could do these [joint meetings] twice a year, so that we would get your thoughts about where we have progressed.”
Regarding the state requirements relating to school safety, Patton outlined several laws by way of a PowerPoint presentation. This includes one related to safe-school officers.
“We must have an officer at each of our schools,” Patton said. “The officer must be present during that school day.”
In accordance with state statutes, Patton said a sworn law enforcement officer has to be “physically present and directly involved with the execution of the Active Assailant Emergency Drills.”
Media members were only allowed to sit in on the initial portion of the meeting regarding state laws and school safety. After roughly 30 minutes, the meeting was then closed to solely district representatives and law enforcement/emergency response professionals to allow for conversation on confidential safety issues.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.