Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced Thursday that he will make significant changes to how his department reviews safety at Pennsylvania’s schools.
Local government officials and superintendents have shared their support of DePasquale’s announcement.
“Given that my team has been reviewing school safety issues for more than a decade, now is an appropriate time to assess how we evaluate school safety and make changes where appropriate so that students can feel safe while they learn,” DePasquale said. “When it comes to the safety of students, teachers and staff, I am — and will always be — proactive.”
Both State Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, agree with DePasquale’s proactive approach and his desire to help our students feel safe in school on a daily basis.
“We all want our kids to feel safe and be safe when they go to school each day,” Causer said. “Enhancing the school safety aspects of these audits, and sharing the results with law enforcement as well as school officials, can help ensure each of our schools is secured in the best way possible.
“The House is also holding a hearing next week to discuss some school safety ‘best practices’ and to examine any legislative actions that may be taken to further protect our children,” Causer said.
For Scarnati, the diversity of our school districts is an important factor to take into account.
“Ensuring our children are safe at their schools is a crucial part of creating successful learning environments. Last week the Senate Education Committee held a hearing to examine ways to improve student and school safety,” said Scarnati.
”We must make sure that we are doing everything within our power to protect our children. After recognizing the need for greater school safety measures in 2013, I spearheaded legislation to increase funding for school safety, through the School Resource Officer/School Police Officer Competitive Grant program,” the senator said. “It is clear that the needs of each school district across our state are very diverse and school safety plans should be tailored to the unique needs of each school.
“Discussions with the PA Department of Education, state police, educators and security experts continue to progress, as we determine the best approach to continuing to safeguard our schools,” Scarnati said.
DePasquale noted that following the Nickel Mines Amish School shooting in 2006, the Department of the Auditor General added a school safety component to its school audit objectives. The most common audit safety recommendations issued focus on visitor procedures, staff training, practice drills, building entrances and exits, communication and alarm systems, buses and parking, and general building and grounds security.
DePasquale said he would also look at how the school construction and renovation process incorporates school safety concerns in planning for those projects.
“Pennsylvania taxpayers spend millions and millions of dollars each year on school construction and renovation,” DePasquale said. “School safety must be part of the planning for these projects. To ignore school safety issues in these projects would be flat-out irresponsible.”
As part of the stepped-up school safety efforts, DePasquale said he will immediately add school safety objectives to all school audits and reviews and expand the distribution of confidential school safety audit results — beyond the current distribution to school superintendents and school safety officers — to include the Pennsylvania State Police, Attorney General and local police departments.
“The most students should ever have to worry about in school is a pop quiz in algebra class,” DePasquale said. “Students should never have to worry whether they will be able to survive the school day unharmed. It is up to all of us to make safe schools a reality.”
Locally, Bradford and Smethport superintendents shared previous results of school safety audits and the desire to ensure the safety of students during their daily trek through school hallways.
“Although we have annual independent audits, we have not had a safety audit by the state since 2016,” said Bradford Area School District Superintendent Katharine Pude. “At that time, they only chose one school within the district to audit, due to the scope of the audit requirements at that time. We received a clean audit with a few minor recommendations: visitor parking, signage to the building, and an update to our computer use policy, all of which we remedied.”
When it comes to the future of the audits and related safety review, Pude shared her agreement with the plans DePasquale set forth. “I agree with Auditor General’s plan to increase the scope and frequency of the Safe Schools audit and to share with law enforcement.”
Dave London, superintendent of Smethport Area School District, said the district has used suggestions from the auditor general’s office to improve school safety already.
“Prior audit reports were a great resource for me as a new superintendent,” he said.
“We also utilize a consultant who was originally provided by the Office of Safe Schools to assess our building and grounds and make suggestions for improving school safety. He has helped the Smethport School District to complete a revision of our Emergency Operations Plan. In the fall, the Smethport Board of Education voted to retain the consultant for future advisement. He has helped us with emergency drills and that will continue in the future.”
The Bradford Area School District has been the site of several potential threats in recent weeks. Pude noted parents have been vocal about their concerns and the school district is responding in a proactive manner, as DePasquale noted he is doing.
“We have received concerns from parents about communication and are proactively working to enhance our procedures and systems to ensure we can effectively do so. Our Emergency Response procedures and plans were updated this summer and board approved in November, 2017. We continually assess the overall physical safety of our facilities to provide a safe environment for our students,” Pude said.
London explained that Smethport has plans in place to increase security in their schools, with hopes to strengthen the school property boundaries and organize parking.
“This summer, we are undertaking a project that will install security vestibules at Smethport Elementary School and Jr/Sr. High School for improved visitor management,” London said. “Included in the project will be improved visitor management as well as alarms on exterior doors and a new electronic key system that will replace the old master key system existing on exterior doors.
“Smethport parents and community members can be assured that we place student and campus safety at the top of our list and that our board is allocating resources to improve our safety and security.”
