Representatives from various Dutchess County school districts, law enforcement and local and state government shared expertise on everything centered on student and staff safety at this year’s Dutchess County School Safety Advisory Committee School Safety Seminar. The event co-sponsored by Dutchess BOCES, the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center and New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal.
“When most people think about school safety, they think about it in the wake of a tragedy, but we work on school safety all the time,” Committee Co-Chair and Millbrook Central School District Superintendent Caroline Hernandez Pidala said. “We have ongoing dialogue.”
Dutchess BOCES Director of School Safety and Security Jacqueline Fama noted that the conversations amongst the attendees, from multiple disciplines, showed how safety does not have to be reactive, but how proactive measures can lead to safer schools.
“Strength comes from collaboration and it comes from networking and making sure that we’re working together on a common goal,” Fama said. “That day was really true evidence of that.”
Frank Guglieri, Putnam Northern Westchester (PNW) BOCES’ Director of Regional Safety Services, coordinated a tabletop exercise with Dutchess BOCES Director of School Safety and Security Jaqueline Fama, PNW BOCES Regional Safety Coordinator Sarah Doyle, Dutchess County Department of Emergency Response Public Information Officer Patricia DePaolo Munk, New York State Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services Regional Coordinator Nadine Macura and Hernandez Pidala. Dutchess County Sheriff Kirk Imperati and Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino introductory speeches at the seminar and the organizers thank them for their support of these safety efforts.
Groups of attendees answered questions regarding the steps to follow after a mass casualty incident, eventually leading to reunification, where students are back safely with their families. Guglieri encouraged attendees to be proactive in their decisions, engage in meaningful conversations, make connections and utilize the guidance of the representatives from varied organizations.
“It’s important to tabletop, but it’s also important to set goals and objectives for you and your team,” Guglieri said. “The whole theme of today is that there are resources around.”
When responding to an incident, Guglieri asked attendees to think about how much has changed in 15 years where only a school’s principal and resource officer put a building in lockdown, now, some schools have buttons in the hallways for anyone to press in case of an emergency.
“We want everyone to be able to initiate it, just like we want everyone to be able to call 911,” Guglieri said. “We’ve evolved from just ‘hiding’ to now having a situationally aware response.”
Attending the seminar helped Red Hook Central School District Director of Facilities & Operations Scott Rajczi think more about the after effects of any incident.
“It did force us to look at our current plans,” Rajczi said. “It’s been a positive experience because we are on the right page and we are proactive.”
Daren Lolkema, Wappingers Central School District’s Assistant Superintendent for Administration and Information Systems, noted that he discovered resources to help plan his district’s upcoming reunification exercise in November. He appreciated hearing Imperati’s message of striving to be better than the day before.
“If we all strive for that, we’ll all be going in the right direction,” Lolkema said of Imperati’s message. “We are truly fortunate to have access to the resources here at this conference.”
