Monday, April 29, 2024
GISD Security Director Wade Clark (back row with gray goatee) poses at the start of the school year with some of the district's security personnel.
Three GISD campuses recently passed a state safety audit “with flying colors,” according to Security Director Wade Clark.
Superintendent Jeremy Glenn said that the “intruder detection” audits were conducted by the Texas School Safety Center.
At Monday night’s regular meeting of the Granbury School Board of Trustees, Clark reported that “after Uvalde, a lot of things changed” and that in the wake of the deadly school shooting, there has been “a lot of pressure” on school districts to increase safety.
Clark said that his staff has been conducting weekly safety audits and keeping a log for the state.
All exterior doors at school buildings are left locked, he said, and the district has created a policy requiring all interior doors to be closed and locked during times of instruction.
Doors are “constantly spot-checked,” he stated.
Clark indicated a belief that the district’s strict adherence to door-locking policies are why “the campuses passed (the state audit) with flying colors.”
The security chief further reported that two additional uniformed school marshals have been hired, one for the STAARS/BTC campus, the other as a floater to fill in as needed so that no campus is ever without security personnel.
Clark said that the district currently has 16 uniformed school marshals and about as many non-uniformed school marshals.
STOP THE PROP
In another matter related to campus security, Granbury High School senior Christopher Beaver, son of Rachel and Jonathan Beaver, was recognized for his winning “Stop the Prop” graphic design.
CTE Graphics instructor Dawn Bradley said that school board trustee Paula McDonald requested that her students design a logo for the safety campaign, which is designed to prevent doors at school campuses from ever being propped open, posing safety threats to students, teachers and staff.
Beaver’s creation was the design chosen.
School board president Barbara Townsend said that the young man’s logo will be used at “every single door, interior and exterior” at GISD buildings.
