Superintendent’s official statement on school safety

To our MSBSD families, students, employees, and community members,

While our mission is the education of all students, school safety is the number one priority for the district. To meet this goal, we focus our efforts of safety in two general categories: prevention and preparedness.

Prevention consists of our efforts in curriculum, relationship building, and disciplinary procedures. This includes our recent initiatives with social emotional learning, specifically Capturing Kids Hearts at the secondary level and Positive Action at the elementary level.

Preparedness is our effort to be able to respond effectively and efficiently should an emergency occur. This includes our staff, professional development/training, and school buildings. Our district employs School Safety Coordinators at the large comprehensive high schools and partners with Wasilla Police Department to have a School Resource Officer. Two times per year, our staff and students engage in safety drills focused on the ALICE protocol (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate). All school principals are certified in FEMA’s Incident Command System to ensure effective communication with local law enforcement. In addition, our school facilities have security cameras, lock down buttons, and automatic call out systems to secure our buildings.

Yesterday, a student was overheard making a potential threat of harm in a school. This statement started a chain of media conversation which resulted in misinformation regarding the safety of students in school. As district leaders, we understand our community has heightened concern in light of the recent school violence that occurred in Florida. We want to assure our community that MSBSD leadership will be communicating directly with families through our mass notification system if a school is affected by a perceived or potential threat.

In response to the recent school violence tragedy, it is my hope that all schools and families will take this opportunity to talk about safety protocols with their students. This includes responding to an emergency and reporting any potential signs of threat to an adult at their school or to a trusted parent. This is an incredibly sensitive time in our community and therefore, we need to remind all students that any statement of violence will be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Moving forward, the school district is conducting a thorough review of our prevention and preparedness practices. We will be providing the School Board with a comprehensive report and suggestions for continuous improvement on Wednesday, April 4th. Thank you, to all of you, for your commitment to keeping our schools physically and emotionally safe place for our students to be.