Getting Back to Normal

Another great weekend in the books! We had a very rare occurrence at home when BOTH of our boys were under the same roof at the same time. Even though they are both over 21, we spent the time cooking out and just catching up. If you have younger kids, I don't care how much they argue and fight, you will miss those days when it takes six months or more at a time to get them together.

Some Employees Return: Welcome Back Today we welcome our eleven-month administrators and secretaries back to school. There are only a few of us who work 12 months so we appreciate the company! Their arrival means that life will begin to come back to each of the elementary and middle school buildings, new families will get tours, class lists will be finished, and professional development will begin. Good stuff!

Security Update: Over the past few weeks, we have been working to get all of our security enhancements in place for the fall. First, we have finalized the schedule for the security project that was approved in May. When you come back to school in September you will see the beginnings of the staging necessary to harden our entrances, upgrade our exterior cameras, and provide more advanced door locks for our classrooms. The big work to make all of that happen will begin at the end of September and should be completed by late spring.

In the meantime, my work with the Onondaga County Safety Task Force is complete and our findings and recommendations will be released on the steps of City Hall on August 13 at 9:30 a.m. I was responsible for the "Training and Communication Subcommittee" and the recommendations coming from our group include consistent active shooter training (details of the type of training will be in the full report), constant promotion of door locks and saying something if you see something, and an emphasis on mental health training, crisis intervention training, and Stop the Bleed training. West Genesee is already engaged in all of the above and this will continue and be enhanced into this school year.

On the communication side, we are recommending the addition of two communication services: Navigate Prepared and Tip411.

Navigate Prepared will give police an opportunity to have three-dimensional pictures and videos of each of our buildings in the event of an emergency. It will give our employees an instant way to take student attendance and also signal an alarm from a given area if necessary. This will be in place for West Genesee by the time school starts.

Tip411 is a product that has been very successful for the police, but has not been available for schools, until now. Tip411 allows anonymous communication between a tipster and law enforcement so a case can be solved more quickly.

As a result of the safety committee, we were able to get the company to tailor a product for schools, and West Genesee will be the first school in the county to use it. If you are a school administrator and reading this, imagine getting a tip about an incident in a hallway or bathroom and being able to communicate back in an anonymous way to ask for a time, exact location, clothes a person is wearing, etc. This will allow us to cut investigation time from all day to a matter of minutes. We are looking very forward to adding this service for the start of school.

Chief Winn and I are also speaking about ways to maximize school resource officers and those conversations will continue into the fall. All in all, I am pleased with the progress we have made since our last safety forum in the early spring. Everything we spoke about is happening.

Meet the New Coach: In my last blog, we welcomed Coach Shaun Smith as our new Varsity Boys Lacrosse Coach. He will be meeting with returning players and parents from grades 7-12 from 6:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. this Thursday in the West Genesee High School Large Group Instruction Room. He will then be meeting in that same location with any members of the community who would like to meet him and hear what he has to say about the program and his vision from 7:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

Supply Drive Update: I also want to thank everyone for your generosity during our school supply drive. There are families and children in our community who really benefit from your donations! (For more information about the Supply Drive click here.)

This week I will be getting all of our academic initiatives lined up for the school year and will relay those and more to you next week. Stay cool, stay dry, and enjoy the week.

Chris