Gulley presents security plan

Hardened schools, a trained and armed response, an emphasis on threat assessment and reaching out to troubled students.

That’s the agenda superintendent Jeremy Gulley presented Monday to Jay School Board.

“I believe every school in this district is going to have some school security changes to it,” Gulley told the board. “Our schools were never designed for an active shooter threat.”

In the wake of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, Gulley has put together a nine-point review of school security, met with local law enforcement, convened a countywide school safety commission, conferred with leadership of Jay Classroom Teachers Association and conducted a school safety “town hall” session with Jay County High School students.

On Monday, he detailed steps to make schools more difficult targets and outlined policy decisions that will face the board in the weeks ahead.

Some of those steps have already been taken.

Gulley last week signed a purchase order for ballistic resistant film made by 3M — Ultra S600 — to be retrofitted on windows and exterior doors at JCHS. “This is an after-market solution that many schools are starting to use,” he said. “What it’s designed to do is buy time.”

That expenditure is being made from funds saved by refinancing school construction bonds last year.

“It’s going to take a patchwork of funding methods” to pay for school security changes, Gulley said.

After JCHS, ballistic resistant film will next be installed at West Jay Middle School, followed by Bloomfield Elementary School and East Jay Middle School. In all cases, Gulley said, the savings from the bond refinancing will be tapped to pay for the changes.

In addition, the office at General Shanks Elementary School will be moved and the entrance re-vamped, and changes in school access and security at East Elementary School will also occur this summer. (See related story.)

“These dollars are not general fund dollars,” said Gulley, referring to the school corporation’s financial struggles in recent years that have led to the closing of Pennville Elementary last year and the closing of Judge Haynes Elementary at the end of the current school year.

But making school buildings tougher targets is only part of the equation, Gulley said.

Other steps include:

•Creating a countywide threat assessment team, making use of Indiana’s “red flag” law and threat assessment training from Sandy Hook Promise.

•Increasing access to mental health and counseling services.

•Increasing armed security with a full-time school resource officer at JCHS and developing the capability for an armed response team at each school.

It’s that last item which would require a change in policy on the part of the school board.

School board members will meet in executive session at 5 p.m. April 16 to discuss the issue. School security is an issue that can be discussed in executive session under Indiana law.

“I do not have any plans to arm individual teachers in the classroom,” said Gulley, citing the need for training and the danger of accidental discharge of a firearm. “I do think there’s a sensible middle ground.”

He cited schools in Mad River and Sidney, Ohio, as potential models.

Gulley envisions working with Jay County Sheriff’s Office to screen school corporation volunteers in order to select those who might be suitable for an armed response in the event of a school shooting.

Those selected would undergo a minimum of 26 hours of training. Firearms would be in school buildings in safes that could only be opened with the fingerprint of one of the trained response team members.

Funding will also be an issue.

School safety legislation in the Indiana General Assembly was one of several matters lost in the shuffle at the end of the current session.

“The governor today announced he’s bringing them back” (for a special session), said Gulley. That could help cover some of the costs of additional security.

“The mental health piece of this is important,” he said.

“If it’s implemented and done correctly, we’re going to be reaching out to troubled kids,” added school board president Phil Ford.

“It takes a layered security approach,” Gulley told the board. “Any one of these on its own is not going to stop this.”