Council Reviews School Safety Measures
Jan 19, 2023 12:00AM ● By Story by Shaunna BoydCITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - At the January 12 meeting, the Citrus Heights City Council heard a presentation from Mike Jones, Director of the San Juan Unified School District’s (SJUSD) Safe Schools Team, which works to improve campus safety and create an environment and culture where students feel secure and able to succeed. They develop comprehensive school safety plans, assess school site vulnerabilities, plan emergency procedures and response drills, address issues of bullying, respond to student behavior issues, and address any disruptions affecting school site safety.
“We do it very well with a small group,” said Jones. As Director, he oversees the program, which includes one Supervisor, eight Community Safety Specialists, and one Safe Routes to Schools Specialist. He explained that the program used to involve contracts with the Sheriff’s Department to employ off-duty officers as School Resource Officers (SRO), but that practice was discontinued in 2018 due to community concerns, a lack of available officers, and budget issues.
While police training isn’t a requirement for employment on the Safe Schools Team, many of the employees do have a background in law enforcement. And Jones said all the Community Safety Specialists are highly trained in emergency response procedures, active threat response, critical incident management, crisis communication and de-escalation skills, behavioral threat assessment, therapeutic crisis intervention, and crime prevention. They are also mandated reporters and trained to recognize child abuse and neglect, as well as signs of human trafficking.
The Safe Schools Team works in close partnership with law enforcement to investigate direct threats to school safety, address crimes on school grounds, and conduct behavioral threat assessments. The team brings together mental health professionals, social workers, counselors, school administrators, teachers, law enforcement officers, and safety specialists to investigate concerns about students who may be a threat to themselves or to others and to determine the appropriate intervention tactics. Jones said, “I do truly believe that most acts of school violence are preventable,” and he views this collaborative team as a key element of locating possible threats.
Jones said that after some “horrific school shootings” across the country in recent years, the Safe Schools Program launched Site Safety and Vulnerability Studies this school year (2022/2023). All the high schools, middle schools, and K-8 schools have been fully assessed and the elementary school assessments are underway and will be completed by March 1, 2023.
The outcomes of the completed assessments have shown that there are some site vulnerabilities, so various safety improvements should be implemented. Jones said many of the district schools are around 50 years old and “were built to be part of the community. They were built to be open and welcoming, and to have those easements of use, and to be really an extension of the existing community.”
But the ease of access needs to be addressed: Jones explained that fencing and gate systems will be put in place at all schools to ensure a single point of entry and exit where visitors must check in through the office during school hours. And standardized classroom door locks will be installed so all rooms can be secured from the inside without a key. And improved building signage and pathway markings will make it easier for emergency responders to navigate the school sites.
Jones said the SJUSD Safe Schools model is leading the way in school safety improvements, and many other districts are following their lead. Newer schools in the SJUSD already meet many of these safety guidelines, but $10 million has been earmarked from existing bonds to implement these improvements at older sites. Project development for the fencing is underway, but it will take some time to meet design and code requirements. New signage and door locks are being addressed immediately and are ongoing through district maintenance.
Councilmember Bret Daniels asked for more details about the decision to move away from the SRO model in 2018. Jones explained that with the high cost of SROs and their lack of availability, the District decided to shift to a model that offered the “biggest bang for their buck” by focusing on supportive resources and prevention. Daniels said he was pleased to hear about the planned improvements to gates and fencing: “I think that’s critical. You’ve got to harden the target.”
In October 2022, the Council asked the CHPD to determine the possible cost of placing an armed officer at each of the 12 school sites within the city. Chief of Police Alex Turcotte presented the results of that report, which he made clear did not offer any recommendation for action but simply answered the question of potential cost. Turcotte said, “While the campuses are within our jurisdiction, currently our public schools are part of the San Juan Unified School District, and they technically have jurisdiction over their schools and are a major stakeholder in the security of their schools, and they would have a place at the table with this discussion.”
Chief Turcotte said it would require a total of 15 new CHPD employees: one officer per site and three additional administrative support employees. The CHPD estimates that it would cost $1.8 million just in equipment and materials to field that number of new employees – and then the ongoing cost would be approximately $2.58 million per year at current salary and operating costs.
Councilmember Daniels asked if it would really cost $90,000 for each new police vehicle. Chief Turcotte said, “Yeah, cars are expensive. That’s the full build-up of a patrol car.”
Councilmember Porsche Middleton pointed out that the costs didn’t even include pensions, human resource costs, or potential expansion of CHPD office space. And as the estimate is based on today’s prices and doesn’t include potential inflation, she said it could end up being “more and more expensive.”
Mayor Tim Schaefer asked if every cubicle space in the current department building was being utilized, and Chief Turcotte confirmed that the department is probably “at capacity.”
Councilmember Daniels said he wanted staff to move forward with examining possible funding sources for an armed-officer program at local schools. He said having a dedicated officer on each school site would prevent a possible tragedy, but then he followed up by saying it would also benefit the larger community “to have 12 police officers strategically placed throughout the city who can respond to something else in an immediate need.
Councilmember Jayna Karpinski-Costa said it was more important for the school district to improve fencing and implement other hardening measures. “Just to put a person in a building doesn’t protect children,” she said. And she pointed out that only about one-third of children in Citrus Heights actually attend schools within the city. So, putting officers in Citrus Heights schools would leave many of the City’s children unprotected by this measure since they attend schools outside the city.
Councilmember MariJane Lopez-Taff said that the City, the CHPD, and SJUSD have a good collaborative partnership and the focus should be on supporting that work rather than seeking funding sources for a separate solution to the problem, especially when the Safe Schools Team has “an effort underway.”
Mayor Schaefer said it would be better to have too much security than not enough. While he liked what they heard from Safe Schools, he said that school shooters are often students who were bullied and the red flags were missed, so he “couldn’t sleep at night” without taking that threat seriously and looking at every possible preventative measure.