The Warren County School Board heard on Wednesday about the division’s ongoing efforts to keep students and staff safe.

Superintendent Christopher Ballenger reported at the School Board’s Wednesday meeting on security at each campus and across the division. His report comes after the May 24 shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead.

“So the unfortunate and sad event at Robb Elementary School is on the forefront of everyone’s mind and I kinda wanted to take this time to discuss what we’re doing to ensure the safety of all Warren County Public Schools students and staff,” Ballenger said.

School Board Chairwoman Kristen J. Pence, Vice Chairman Ralph A. Rinaldi and members Antoinette D. Funk, Andrea M. Lo and Melanie C. Salins attended the meeting.

Warren County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Cindy Burke oversees the agency’s school resource officers. Ballenger said he and Burke talk several times each week about school safety and that they conducted an audit of the schools earlier on Wednesday.

Division administrators meet each year with representatives from the Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Fire and Rescue, the Front Royal Police Department and school administrators to review the system’s crisis management plan. Schools Director of Special Services Michael Hirsch guides the review process. Health Department representatives also participate. Next year’s review takes place July 20.

The Sheriff’s Office had a shortage of school resource officers this year, Burke said. But the agency should have a full contingent of resource officers for next year to provide one deputy for each school, she said.

Threat-assessment teams at each school meet regularly to discuss safety and security at their facilities. Burke performs the division’s annual safety audit in conjunction with system administrators and monitors the schools on a daily basis, Ballenger said.

Burke explained what the safety audit entails.

“For a school resource officer, it takes a lot — just not your normal Warren County Sheriff’s deputy can step into school resource,” Burke said. “You have to have a love for kids.

“When we go into that school we’re going in looking at windows; we’re checking doors to be locked,” Burke said. “We are constantly searching to make sure there is no way no one can get in. When we’re checking cameras, we’re checking outdoors. When we go outside, we’re still checking our doors because someone could open the door and forget to lock it. So we stay pretty busy on a day-to-day basis checking on the security of the schools.”

School administrators provide radios to each officer assigned to their facility, Burke said.

Ballenger and Burke discussed the security for Warren County Middle School. Visitors can enter the school through the front door but they must wait in a vestibule for a staff member to buzz them in before they can go further into the building. Ballenger said he and Burke discussed the possibility of moving the electronic locking system and communications equipment to the front door — the same set up as at Ressie Jeffries Elementary School. Ballenger said he spoke to maintenance staff to see how they could move the security equipment.

The administration also plans to use a recently awarded grant to begin switching schools from keys to keycards. The division is in the process of upgrading the communications system including outdoor speakers at its elementary schools, Ballenger noted. During a safety audit at one of the schools, a teacher with a class outside did not hear the announcement that the facility had gone into a lockdown, Ballenger said.

The division has upgraded the communication system and speakers at E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School as well as installed indoor and outdoor cameras, and increased lighting. It increased camera coverage at Skyline and Warren County middle schools; replaced non-functioning cameras at Warren County High School; replaced the entire security system at Blue Ridge Technical Center allowing it to integrate with the district-wide system; and installed additional indoor and outdoor cameras at Brighter Futures Diversified Minds. The design for Leslie Fox Keyser Elementary School renovations includes the addition of a secure vestibule and other new security features.

The Sheriff’s Office conducts K9 officer walk-throughs during lockdowns. The division recently updated its policies on search-and-seizures to mention K9 searches, Ballenger said. Officers also can conduct vehicle checks in the parking lots. The agency also has an ammunition-detecting K9 in the event of a threat of a shooting or a bomb, Burke noted.

Parents also can access the Safety Counts handbook on the division’s website, Ballenger noted.

All school buses have cameras and the administration plans to upgrade the communications systems on the vehicles to provide direct communications with the schools, Ballenger said.

The Sheriff’s Office provided a school resource officer to each event held at facilities in the past week along with patrol officers driving through campuses, Burke said.

– Contact Alex Bridges at abridges@nvdaily.com

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