District Safety and Security Enhancements
With the new school year now upon us, I wanted to take this opportunity to inform our school community about security enhancements and initiatives premiering this year.
Since the unspeakable tragedy at Sandy Hook, our district has continually worked to enhance our safety and security measures. This year we are introducing a number of new initiatives. Some of these initiatives – like our adoption of an anonymous reporting app – will be obvious to the community, while others might be more subtle, but all initiatives support one very important goal: prioritizing the physical and emotional safety of our students and staff.
See It, Say It, Send It Anonymous Reporting App
In recent years the use of anonymous reporting apps has grown exponentially for the purpose of providing another method to report safety concerns at the earliest possible moment.
Madison Public Schools has adopted the See It, Say It, Send It anonymous reporting app for the district. This app gives students – and the entire school community – another tool to quickly and anonymously report safety concerns.
FAQs
- What is the advantage of an app? Why can’t students/parents just call the school/cops with concerns?
- Will someone monitor the app all the time? Who monitors the app?
- Wait there are two new apps this year? What is the different between this and the new district Finalsite app?
- Who can use this app?
- Can I submit a tip online?
What is the advantage of an app? Why can’t students/parents just call the school/cops with concerns?
Will someone monitor the app all the time? Who monitors the app?
Wait there are two new apps this year? What is the different between this and the new district Finalsite app?
Who can use this app?
Can I submit a tip online?
Two Campuses, Two Student Resource Officers (SRO)
With the recent physical contraction of the district, we now have a dedicated SRO at each campus: one for the Green Hill Road campus and one for the Route 79 north campus. Unlike prior years, each campus will now have one dedicated SRO on the premises for the entire school day for the full school year.
- Memorandum of Agreement
(Board of Education/Board of Police Commissioners)
Advanced Lockdown and Safety Protocols – “ALICE” Training
Law enforcement experts continually work to improve and modernize response protocols to violent threats. The current recommended response protocol is called the ALICE approach, an acronym that represents five different responses to violent threats. The administrative team was trained in this approach this summer and the entire MPS faculty and staff will be trained over the course of this school year.
DHHS Campus Shield PAL Program
This summer we have installed infrastructure and cabling to implement a system called, "Campus Shield", a pilot program at DHHS. With this technology, each staff member is assigned a “PAL”, which is a personal alarm locater. The PAL operates under radio frequency – the most reliable communication system - and functions as a personal 911 that will only be used in case of emergency.