District to boost school security

• The software also includes a digital map of each campus, including the high school, that will be installed on all front office computers.

Marble Falls ISD trustees on Monday approved $1,130,220 in state grants that they expect to provide better security next year for the district’s 4,000 students and 725 employees.

The grants will provide for scale-proof fencing at all schools and nine panic-bar type exit gates ($475,336); a high-tech emergency panic notification system to be used by employees ($504,700); and entry-resistant film that will be applied to exterior doors and nearby windows ($52,935). The film augments film bought by the district and applied at several schools last fall and "we were very pleased with it," said Assistant Superintendent for Admin - istration Stan Whittle, who presented the requests to board members at Monday's special meeting.

The fencing is a special type that re- sists climbing. It will be augmented, at least at Marble Falls Elementary and Spicewood Elementary schools, with flexible slats that can be woven through the fence to provide privacy to students on campus. Marble Falls Elementary abuts busy Ranch Road 1431 and Spicewood Ele - mentary is just off Spur 191.

The exit gates won’t allow people to enter school grounds but will allow easy exit in case of emergency, Whittle said.

“We’ve got (campuses) safe and secure, which is great from the outsiders coming in,” he said. “But if there’s a situation inside the building or perimeter where students and staff need to exit the property, they need to be able to get out.”

The gates will operate much like panic bars on school doors familiar to anyone who’s been in a school.

The high tech purchase is called SPAT, for Silent Panic Alert Technology.

It will equip every employee with a special card with a button which, if pushed a certain number of times, will alert the central office that help is needed.

Pushing the button will also pinpoint the need, but Whittle emphasized that the device doesn’t track employees all the time – it only works when the button is pushed, he said.

A different combination of pushes of the button triggers a campus lockdown, Whittle said.

“This is a new requirement (by the legislature),” he said. “It’s not required to be installed on all campuses in Texas until the ‘25-’26 school year but we’re going to get ahead of the game.”

“This is for your regular day-to-day type of situation in a school setting … you may have an emergency and you may need a nurse, a kid that’s sick or unresponsive or having medical complications,” he explained.

Whittle said the software also includes a digital map of each campus that will be installed on all front office computers.

That map will show the location of the panic button that’s pushed.

The program also includes what’s called a “visitor management system, which, unlike the teacher-worn badge will constantly track its own location.

“When visitors com in, they sign in, they will wear this badge, and it’s a bright yellow badge,” Whittle said. “So in an emergency we’ll know where all visitors are on our campus.”

Because the card carries such import, employees will get special training in how to use it.

“We feel it’s going to just increase our safety for our students and our staff,” Whittle said.

The program is a five- year contract which can be renewed at the end of that period. It includes installation, training and maintenance by the contractor.

Whittle said none of the new programs will affect school buses, which are already equipped with GPS and video.

He said the grant totals are slightly more than the cost of the items the board approved, and the excess money can be used to augment existing programs such as school resource officers, police officers as signed to school campuses.

“And then that’s going to free up some of our general operating funds for our budget,” he said.