Safety and Security

In a previous post, I wrote about how the Hillsborough Township school district - through necessary budget cuts - has been left with a lack of adequate supervision in some critical areas. In a future post, I will have some suggestions to remedy that. Today, let's focus on the essential area of safety and security.

When I say "safety and security" I am not talking about security guards, school resource officers (SROs), or arming teachers. In the context of supervision, I am suggesting adding a new position of Director of Safety and Security. This would be a management position reporting directly to the superintendent.

In Hillsborough, many or most of the functions you might associate with this type of position have fallen under the responsibility of the school business administrator (BA). If you are a Hillsborough resident reading this right now you don't have to think too hard to understand why this might not be the best arrangement. But when I first began suggesting adding this position years ago it was simply to take some responsibility away from the BA and put it into the hands of a security professional.

A Director of Safety and Security would be responsible for:

• Interfacing with local and state law enforcement.
• Assessing the safety and security of each building.
• Being in charge of loss prevention.
• Arranging for security at events.
• Consulting on weather-related or other school closings.
• Being present!

That is just a short list - a security professional coming to the district would surely know more about the job than I do! Having said that, let's take a closer look at the bullet points I noted above.

Local law enforcement is very involved with our schools. That is a good thing. But it takes a lot of time away from our educational leader - the superintendent - and our business professional - the BA. In my experience, these two school leaders don't always know the right questions to ask law enforcement and don't necessarily know how to explain the district's needs. A security director would take care of that.

In my fifteen-plus years as a school board member, we had a couple of different security assessments done in the district - but I don't remember implementing many of the suggestions until the 2019 building referendum when it was decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at each school to add security vestibules. It would be my expectation that a security director would have more "ounce of prevention" suggestions.

Loss prevention - this one is a biggie. I am not talking about someone walking off with office supplies - they don't do that anyway. What I am talking about is eyes-on accountability with access that board members just don't have. Purchasing, overtime, expense reports - all of it. Enough said.

Event security - including at board meetings - has become more necessary as civil society has continued to break down. I want someone who knows what is needed and when police need to be called.

School closings for weather or other issues - on the eve of our first, thankfully minor, delayed opening tomorrow morning this one speaks for itself.

And finally - Being Present. Despite what you might think, it's not in a human being's nature to be "good"!