Gilbert Public Schools continues work on security upgrades
New school year includes more lobby work, school IDs, bus app
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Quite frankly, from a rational perspective, our schools are generally a safe place for staff and students to be, but we all know anything can happen anytime anyplace.”
Allen Cain, Gilbert Public Schools director of safety and security
Gilbert Public Schools has been busy upgrading security, including more work on school lobbies this summer to increase safety.
Superintendent Shane McCord acknowledged at a governing board study session Tuesday that national events, including last May’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, have been a driving force to upgrade security, which officials characterized as sad but important to do.
“We will never be able to say that nothing can happen on our campuses,” McCord said. “But we want people to know we take it seriously and that we are doing the things that we should be doing and would like to continue to do more so that those feelings of being safe and secure on our campuses is intact.”
McCord hired Allen Cain as director of safety and security in 2018, and since then, the district has made a number of upgrades, according to the board presentation
“Quite frankly, from a rational perspective, our schools are generally a safe place for staff and students to be, but we all know anything can happen anytime anyplace,”Cain said. “All the measures … we’ve put in place [are] to target harden and strengthen our campuses for the overall security of our schools and to keep everybody safe.”
But Marcie Taylor, GPS’ secondary education assistant superintendent, said the district does not want the schools to look like prisons.
Secured entry lobbies that are meant to be visually appealing but including bullet resistant glass, remote activated door releases, card access for staff entry, a visitor management system and dedicated lobby camera and microphone with public view monitor.
Each visitor has their ID scanned, and they are run against the national sex offender data base.
The camera systems across the district are being updated, and the system will be monitored and fed to the district’s security operations center. It also can be shared with local police in an emergency. The security operations center can be used as a command center during an emergency.
The newest cameras have built-in analytics for appearance searches that have helped find lost or stolen property and assisted in student discipline.
Fences have been upgraded to keep property safe at night and to funnel visitors, students and staff to predetermined entry points during school hours.
All secondary campuses have school resource officers. The district has 12 security guards for their secondary campus and three security guards who rotate among elementary schools. Security guards get annual training.
The alarm systems throughout the district have been upgraded from previous alarms that Cain called antiquated.
External doors and gates are kept locked. Identified entry areas have a stationed security guard checking IDs as students arrive in the morning but are then locked once the school day begins with all entries then going through the office.
Students now must wear ID badges on campus at all times as district employees have had to do.
Taylor said the rollout of the badges has gone better than expected with fewer battles over them than expected and high compliance rates.
The district continues to use lockdowns and has four required lockdown drills each year at every campus, three of which are scheduled and one that Cain conducts randomly.
Cain said that while there has been a national discussion of whether the drills are good, statistics show lockdowns are still the best way to prevent injuries during a threat incident.
All staff are trained and empowered to order their own lockdown if they see a threat on campus, Cain said.
Fire drills are mandated by the federal government, and each campus has one per year.
The district has a tip line for people to anonymously report a potential threat but also can be used for other purposes.
The district has put in place an extensive “reunification” plan to have a controlled release of students to their parents due to abnormal circumstances at a school.
A new app, “Here Comes the Bus,” has been introduced in which parents and students can locate a bus in real time and ensure that students get to the bus stop on time and for parents to know their child entered and exited the bus through the scanning of IDs.
The district has an emergency operations plan and site-specific plans that are updated anually.
The district has started a safety and security committee this year that will meet quarterly. The district also has security documents that schools and employees can access on an internal website as well as information for families on the district website.
The district is considering a number of possible future projects, including emergency notification that can be triggered via mobile app. Others then can receive messages through the app and on digital signage. The app also will activate strobe lights. The district also could use a physical access control system.
Cain thanked the Gilbert community for passing the bond that made the security upgrades possible.
“It’s a shared responsibility to keep all of us safe at school,” he said.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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