Superintendent says district has response plan in place
By Alex Johnson
Correspondent
School safety has been on the minds of people throughout the country since a shooting left 17 students and staff dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month. And that was also the case at Monday’s Burlington Area School District Board of Education meeting.
Norma Miller, of Burlington, asked the School Board what measures the district has taken, and will be taking to protect students as well as Burlington High School’s administrative assistant Lois Cramer, who is the first person people see when entering the school.
“(Do) you have glass windows you can’t shoot through for? Is the school locked? Would you be open to having policemen on duty at all times?” Miller asked.
Superintendent Peter Smet discussed BASD’s safety plans in his regular report and said the district does have an emergency response plan that has been in place for about 10 to 15 years.
Since the Florida shooting on Feb. 14, he has also met with the City of Burlington police and fire departments three times to review safety plans step-by-step.
“We have a police officer that’s in the schools, Jodi Borchardt,” Smet said. “She is in the schools (and) has an office at Burlington High School. She’s there most days, all day.”
Smet also said the district has security cameras in place that can be monitored both remotely and on-site, with the district also “looking at glass, film protection to make (some windows) bulletproof.”
“There’s several things we’ve been doing all along,” Smet said. “There’s things we’re always constantly doing to update and prepare for these times of events.”
See the March 15 edition of the Burlington Standard Press for the full story.
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