Brownwood ISD is currently conducting a safety procedure and protocol review on all campuses, and officials gave an overview of the review to the district’s school board trustees Monday night.
“Due to the school tragedy in Connecticut, we thought it would be good to give you an update on where we are in school safety,” said Deputy Superintendent Kevin Gabaree.
Brownwood Police officer and school resource officer Fred Bastardo is helping conduct the two-week review.
“We are doing what we call a procedure and protocol review, making sure that we are all consistent,” Bastardo said. “We are doing a lot of good things throughout the district but I don’t think we are looking at the big picture like we ought to be as far as outside agencies coming in. That is what the review is for; get everybody on the same page.”
Bastardo said that he is working to create some emergency crisis teams which will help respond in certain situations at campuses.
“Once we get through with it, I believe we will be a lot stronger in a lot of areas,” Bastardo said. “Basically it’s creating certain protocols we don’t have in place that we would like to have in place. We are trying to be more proactive than anything.”
Officials said that the district had made great strides in making the local schools safer with the remodeling of many of the campuses over the last few years.
“First, we are fortunate that the community supported the 2005 bond program,” Gabaree said. “It helped us upgrade our facilities to help accommodate for safety situations, and almost every one of our campuses have now just one entrance that you enter into the building.”
Gabaree said that each campus also develops an emergency operations plan for their campus every year. Those plans are given to the police and fire departments for review.
“Drills are practiced at each campus throughout the year to prepare for emergency situations,” Gabaree said. “A major safety drill, as you know, took place at the high school November 20th that included district administration, the staff, students, and first responders.”
In that drill, administrators and emergency responders worked as if an active shooter was at the high school. Responders at the time said that drill was successful.
Bastardo and school administration will bring the results of the safety review back to the school board once it is complete.
