PWSD using safety grant to purchase panic buttons

The Palestine-Wheatley School District will be giving members of its staff panic buttons to use in a new push toward increasing school safety within the district. Meeting in regular session last week, board members voted unanimously in favor of using a $65,000 grant from the state to improve safety throughout the district with a panic button system from Centegix. In other business, board members also approved a stipend increase for PW Elementary School Principal Tiffany Caldwell from $8,000 to $10,000 and voted to renew six contracts with principals and supervisors in the district. Board vice president Hannah Baskins was absent. According to PWSD Superintendent Ryan Halbert, the state recently issued the safety grant to the district to be used toward safety measures. "The two main ticket items that I am looking to spend that money on is a Centegix program, which is a panic button system, and there is a lot to it. I have a video to show you that explains the system. It is a pretty good overview,” said Halbert. Halbert told board members the system would include color-coded lighting systems to show what lockdowns the school is on as well as the area of emergency. "One of the things I really like about this is that they put up lights in the rooms, hallways and on the outside of the building," said Halbert. "On the backs of the I.D. cards, we have the colors for the different lockdowns. Those lights will correspond with the color of what lockdown we are on. If there is an emergency, the gentleman I spoke with representing the company, said the outside lights will indicate where that emergency or person is." Halbert explained the lights on the outside of the building would also light up in the area where the panic button was pressed to allow emergency services to reach that area quicker. "We had a medical emergency recently and from what I understand, the lights on the outside of the building nearest to that area will be the ones that light up," said Halbert. "So, when someone, an officer or paramedic, pulls up, they will have an even better idea of where to go. If there was to be an active shooter on campus, the teachers that hit the buttons, that area of the building should light up. That is how I understand it at least. "If you hit the button a certain number of times, it will notify local administrators and if you hit it another number of times, it will put the building on lockdown," continued Halbert. "Every staff member will receive one of these panic buttons." According to Halbert, he would also like to purchase heavy-duty stop the bleed kits to have on both campuses to better provide care in the event of an emergency. "We also have some very heavy duty stop the bleed kits in your packets," said Halbert. "Maybe we find ourselves in a situation where a storm has come through and windows got blown out and a bunch of people got hurt. If there was a very unfortunate event, or any situation where a large number of people are wounded and bleeding, they would need medical attention." Halbert explained that by having these kits, medical attention could be provided faster in an emergency situation while they wait for paramedics to arrive. "We have people on campus who can have these kits in their rooms from the high school to the elementary and the pre-k," said Halbert. "We can have them trained to use these kits to help until paramedics arrive. That is one thing I have spoken with State Police about. They have told me that one of the big issues when something happens at a school is the time it takes for paramedics to get there and if they could be there faster, more lives could be saved." According to Halbert, the remainder of the funds could be used throughout the district by making windows shatterproof, adding bollards near entrances and constructing fences. "This, by no means, stands in place of a paramedic," said Halbert. "But, it could help save lives. The remainder of the money that is left over, we still have some areas that need fencing and we have some spots that we want to put some bollards up so that people can't drive through the glass doors. Then, we want to start making our way to get the windows shatter resistant. We can't do all of our windows with the money we have, but we can make a start." Board members unanimously approved the use of the $65,000 to improve safety throughout the district. Also during the meeting, Halbert told the board that currently, the stipend for the position of high school principal is $10,000 while the stipend for the elementary school principal is $8,000. "I would like for that stipend to be moved to $10,000 so that next year, the elementary principal and high school principal stipends are the same,” said Halbert. Halbert also explained that contracts for supervisors and principals need to be renewed this month for the district. "With it being February, that also means that principal and supervisor contracts are up," said Halbert. "You have the contracts for Tiffany Caldwell, Casey Herron, Lindley Gore, Kristie Wilson, Dustin Dearman and Carey Knowlton. There will be one amendment to Tiffany Caldwell's contract to reflect the change in stipend." Board members unanimously approved the recommendation to renew the contracts as well as increase the elementary principal stipend. Halbert said he also recently received three resignations and decided upon three new hires for the elementary campus. "We have resignations from Rosie Thurmond, Trystan Lace and Aaron Carter,” said Halbert. “All three have been great educators in our district. We are sad to see them go. Mrs. Thurmond is retiring for, I don't know what time this is, but she has retired before. She is a wonderful lady. Love her to death. Trystan Lace is a brand new teacher. Her husband got a job in Searcy so they are moving. We hate to see her go. She is phenomenal and everyone raves about her. Coach Aaron Carter has done a really good job for us, but he has received an opportunity to go somewhere else. "We have three new hires," continued Halbert. "Addy Thornhill as a kindergarten through sixth grade teacher, Lindsey Eams as a kindergarten through sixth grade teacher and Hannah Osborne as a special education teacher. I recommend that we hire all three of those teachers. Hannah Osborne can start this year." The board unanimously accepted the new hires as well as resignations.

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