NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Randy Norwood spoke to the USD 308 Board of Education Monday about an update to the district's crisis plan.
"We're currently in the process of updating that district plan," Norwood said. "We anticipate that completion date of sometime late this summer, early this fall. Both Sheila and I are co-chairing that process. We'll be soliciting a lot of input from staff within the district that will have some working knowledge of some of the aspects of what that crisis plan should include."
The intent is to have a quick reference for teachers, no matter what room they are in.
"A flip chart type of item," Norwood said. "These would be purchased once our crisis plan is completed. This is basically a mini crisis plan. It would hang by the door of each and every classroom across the district. In case of an emergency, they could pull this off the wall, flip to the category that is most appropriate and have a quick reference as to how to respond as far as a staff member goes. This would be in every classroom."
Administrators would also have binders with detailed information that they could carry with them if not in the office.
Norwood noted that all doors are secured automatically across the district on a set time schedule and there are generally single points of entry at all the schools after designated entry times, with the exception of Hutchinson High School because of the way the campus is designed and a need for students to go from one part to another during the academic day. In addition, there is a button that administration can press to lock schools down completely should that be necessary. Employee access is controlled through employee badges.
They've also made it very difficult to break in after those doors are automatically locked.
"We do have intruder guard glass, intruder entry glass at a number of our locations," Norwood said. "We spent two years going through that process, identifying the locations at a number of our facilities where to place this glass at our entryways, not only the doors, but also the side glass."
Norwood said it isn't bulletproof, but you can't break it with a sledgehammer, you can't break it with a brick, you can't get in without making enough noise to draw attention and a call to 911 at the very least.
Currently, there is just one school resource officer for the district stationed at Hutchinson High School.
Board members were allowed to ask specific security questions in an executive session on Monday, as well.