SUPERINTENDENT ADRESSES SCHOOL BOARD ABOUT CAMPUS SAFETY

  

With the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School last week, campus safety was on the minds of many of those attending Monday evening’s Brenham School Board meeting.  Superintendent Dr. Walter Jackson said that Brenham, like every school community in our nation, bears the weight and tremendous responsibility of protecting our students and staff from such acts of violence. Jackson read a prepared statement on the issue in which he outlined some of the things Brenham ISD is investigating to increase campus safety:

Board President Natalie Lange suggested that a taskforce of community leaders, parents and law enforcement officials be assembled and look into what could be implemented before the next school year.  Jackson agreed and said he would begin immediately and get back with the board members with an update soon.  Full statement from Dr. Walter Jackson: Brenham ISD Safety Protocols

In other action, the trustees approved designating the “design-build” concept for energy savings projects for the district and requesting qualifications from firms who could provide those services.  Assistant Superintendent Paul Achenbeck said the goal is to locate a firm that could help the district secure low interest loans from the state of Texas that would be paid back from the energy savings from the new equipment.  He said that preliminary surveys of the campuses have identified areas where energy savings could occur including lighting, heating and cooling, and system controls.

Mark Strauss

 

Mark Strauss, Director of Accountability, Assessment, and Professional Development gave the board an update on the STARR testing problems from last week.  Strauss says that according to online test provider EPS, problems occurred with their servers:

Strauss said that the TEA allowed extra time for students to complete the test but declined to allow students to completely retake the online exams.

Director of Career and Technology Education Cody Stelter updated the trustees on the STEAM Academy.  The program began the year as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) but Art is now included to give students a creative outlet also.  Stelter said the program will be implemented at all three elementary schools beginning next year on the 2nd grade level.  Every student in the 2nd grade will be exposed to the program and it is planned to be expanded to higher grades in future years.  He added that STEAM related jobs are the fastest growing part of the job market.

Trustees voted to keep their board officers the same for the upcoming year with Natalie Lange as President, Melvin Ehlert as Vice President and Susan Jenkins as Secretary.

The board presented this month’s “You Make a Difference” award to the five local business who supported this years “Cub Talks” leadership program, Bank of Brenham, Blue Bell Creameries, Brazos Valley Schools Credit Union, Brenham National Bank and Brenham Wholesale.  They also accepted a $75,000 donation from David and Ann Andras for the library at the Early Childhood Learning Center.  The donation is in honor of their daughter-in-law Darcee, and in memory of her mother, Deb Tackett, who served as librarian at Brenham Middle School for many years.

Representatives from Blue Bell Creameries, Brenham Wholesale, Bank of Brenham, and Brazos Valley Schools Credit Union accept the "You Make a Difference" Award.
This year's Valedictorian and Salutatorian Kathryn Wittner and Jason Noor (center) with their parents and High School Principal Joe Chandler (R) were recognized by the School Board Monday.

 

What’s your Reaction?
+1
0
+1
0
+1
0

6 Comments

  1. Until we hold parents legally responsible for these attacks by underage children, it will continue. I am tired of being told to “give the parents of the attacker privacy…”. These parents OWE us answers…and statements…not privacy and time to gather a bevy of lawyers and excuses. Parents are responsible for their children and should be held responsible for their actions. Until the blame goes back to the home and parents understand they are legally accountable for the actions of their children, there are no metal detectors, doors, training, etc to prevent these attacks. The parents of the Santa Fe attacker should be under house arrest.

  2. Is it just me or does it seem like setting up a task force and studying the things we could do is in reality doing very little very slow! There are some common sense measures that could be done now, things like requiring classrooms doors to be closed and locked during school, This is a simple but effective was to slow down a possible shooter. Get rid of old style fire systems where anyone can pull a lever and drive students into the range of a shooter, there are other more effective methods of locating and alerting people to fire. Have one type of bell sound or sequence of rings for a fire, and another for an active shooter, train staff and students on this.
    Lock the exterior doors to the schools and create vestibules or lobbies where visitors have to be checked into the campus. I could go on and on, but the fact is that our schools still seem to be operating under the mentality that it could never happen here, but we all know it could. I have seen posts on this very website where gun violence has been threatened at Krause Elementary School and the response appeared to be completely inadequate.

    1. Everyone of the things you mentioned are already (and have been for years) utilized at Brenham High School. The Task Force is looking at more security measure than the norm.

      1. Sir, that is simply not true, there is no secure lobby or vestibule, anyone can walk in at anytime and head down any hall they want. There are outside entrances to the band hall, cafeteria, and open doors to the many additional buildings on campus where anyone can enter and have access to student areas. If they come in the front door and the attendance people tried to stop them, they would be the first to be hurt. Classroom doors are left open or unlocked often at all campus locations including the high school. Our schools still have multiple entrances that are unlocked and are easy to access during the day. There are lots of common sense low cost ideas that could be implemented and have not been. By the time we get a task force organized, study all the ideas, propose them to the school board, get a budget completed and approved, our kids will be old and gray. Why can’t the board or some of our professional staff be the task force, lets move it along. Enough already, let have some action.

  3. The only way to meet a bad guy with a gun, is to have a good guy with a gun. A bad guy will walk around a metal detector or pull a fire alarm outside the metal detector. There are 100s of millions of gus in the usa, use one in defense of evil.

  4. I’d like to nominate our new incoming county judge to serve on the School Safety Task Force. We need positive communication. The vocal gun rights advocates need to be balanced by more moderate voices for the task force to be successful.

Back to top button