More security measures coming

Additional cameras will be integrated with the sheriff’s office to give law enforcement a live view in an emergency situation.

Plans also call for implementation of random searches with metal detectors after a survey showed support for the idea. Gulley shared results that showed about 75 percent of more than 600 respondents were supportive of random searches and about 90 percent were in support of searches in an established threat situation. He said metal detectors have been ordered and will be tested in the coming weeks with plans to put them into use during the second semester.

There is also a new fire alarm policy that will call for teachers to keep students in their classrooms for up to three minutes after a fire alarm is pulled. In some school shootings, attackers have pulled fire alarms in order to lure students into the hallways.

Future plans include continued “hardening” of doors, walls and glass to make it more difficult for an attacker to gain access to buildings and classrooms, fencing and use of the Sandy Hook Promise smartphone application for anonymous reporting of potentially threatening behavior.

“Any one of these things on their own is not enough,” Gulley said. “Taken collectively together, it creates a more secure effect.”

He said a key factor is making schools safer while maintaining a friendly atmosphere.

“We want it to look like a school. We want it to feel like a school,” he added. “So we’re going to try to find ways to balance hardening our schools and not give up our culture in our schools.”

Gulley also said he has instructed transportation director Teresa Myers to put into motion a process to add stop arm cameras on all Jay School Corporation buses. Vehicles passing buses while students are boarding can be a deadly proposition, as highlighted this month when three children were killed in Rochester.

In other business, the board:

•Hired Michael Bush as interim business manager at a contract rate of $50 per hour. Bush is a retired school administrator who also does consulting work for Wes-Del schools. He will step in for Brad DeRome who is leaving after nearly 19 years to become chief financial officer of Muncie Community Schools.

•OK’d the 2019-20 school calendar. The first student day will be Aug. 9, with fall break Oct. 23 through 25, winter break Dec. 23 through Jan. 1, spring break March 23 through 27 and the last day of school May 20. Graduation will be June 7.

•Briefly reviewed the school corporation’s letter grades from the state, with Bloomfield, East, Judge Haynes, Redkey and Westlawn elementary schools, East Jay Middle School and Jay County High School all receiving a B. General Shanks Elementary received a D. West Jay Middle School’s grade is pending appeal as it was on the line between a B and a C. The overall corporation grade is also pending.

•Approved the following: The re-appointment of Holly Weaver to the Jay County Public Library Board; a Nov. 26 field trip to Chicago for JCHS German students; an Indiana Bond Bank cash flow loan up to $1.3 million until funds are available from the property tax draw; holding an auction of surplus equipment; year-end transfers to balance budget line items as necessary; transferring up to $130,000 in unused appropriations from the capital projects and/or transportation funds to the rainy day fund; voiding any checks over two years old; updates to the certified staff evaluation plan; a series of policy changes regarding student records, use of medication, food service and wellness; memorandums of understanding with administrators and support staff, with 2-percent raises to match those given to members of Jay Classroom Teachers Association last month.

•Accepted donations of $5,500, including $1,500 in supplies from Roche Diagnostics for the corporation’s health clinics.

•Approved the hiring of driver’s education instructors Ted Habegger and Dennis Dwiggins, food service employees Nicole Chapman, John Welker and Stashia Cooke, and General Shanks Elementary School secretary Beth Nichols (effective Nov. 28); accepted the retirements of business manager Brad DeRome and West Jay Middle School teacher Chip Phillips; accepted the resignations of Bloomfield kitchen manager Sheila VanSkyock, General Shanks secretary Alicia Horn and Westlawn Elementary instructional assistant Holly Knight; approved leaves of absence for Rhonda Clott, Colinda Anderson, Jennifer Blackford, Brenda Cash and Janel Jarrett; accepted the resignation of Fred Medler as JCHS volleyball coach; and approved a series of extra-curricular assignments.