At the Tuesday, Feb. 20, Superintendent Scott McCartney outlined how the district is ensuring the safety of everyone in their buildings.
Safety was one of the themes of the Feb. 20 meeting of the Moorestown Township Board of Education, with Superintendent Scott McCartney discussing what Moorestown is doing to ensure the safety of staff and students.
McCartney opened his superintendent’s monthly report by saying how saddened he was to hear about another school shooting and extended his sympathies on behalf of the district to those in Parkland, Fla., affected by the violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HIgh School.
McCartney said the shooting is a somber reminder that too often teachers have to do more than just teach. He said it was simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking to hear stories about teachers sacrificing themselves to save students.
“In many cases, they have unfairly been put in a position of having to care for our kids at a much greater level — a safety and security level,” McCartney said.
In the days following the shooting, he said he has been asked how the district keeps students safe. He said this is becoming an ever-more complicated process.
“How can we make our schools warm, inviting, a friendly place to be, a place to learn, a place to connect but at the same time safe?” McCartney asked.
McCartney addressed the array of ways Moorestown is working to keep schools secure. He said at every school, the doors are locked at all times and visitors have to be buzzed in. He said at Moorestown High School, visitors have to identify themselves to security staff, and at the middle and elementary schools, visitors identify themselves to administrative staff. All faculty in the district wear identification badges that allow them entrance into the buildings, McCartney said.
Teachers and administrators are required to ensure the district’s crisis plans are up-to-date every year, he said. In addition to having manuals outlining safety drills, the state requires schools to hold at least one fire drill and one safety drill a month.
McCartney said the district’s health and safety committee has identified safety as part of what it wants to do for professional development, so in the spring, faculty will revisit the district’s security plans and go through a tabletop exercise to see where processes are working well and where they are not.
Each year, the administration also participates in emergency management meetings where the police department, fire departments, emergency management, rescue squads and local businesses are involved in collective discussions about safety issues in town and how best to address them. McCartney said this meeting took place just a few weeks ago.
Additionally, each year the Moorestown school district enters an agreement with the police department under which if there is something safety-related going on in the community that could affect the schools, the department must inform the district, and vice versa.
In the fall, the district will have an active drill scenario. McCartney said this means police will be at one of the schools to walk through the process and not just do it as a tabletop exercise. He said the community will be informed of the date of the drill, so parents driving by are not alarmed.
“There’s a lot of things we do,” McCartney said. “The variables continue to change, so we continue to look at our process and see if we can improve upon it.”
McCartney said anyone with safety concerns is welcome to call or email him at smccartney@mtps.com with any questions.
The next meeting of the Moorestown Township Board of Education will take place on Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. in William Allen Middle School.
