Holyoke school district is committed to ensuring the safety and security of our students

We have partnered with our community, our local law enforcement, emergency managers, counselors, mental health professionals and many other professionals in the field of school security to develop our plans, processes and procedures for our schools in the event of a security issue. Coupled with that, to increase our school's resiliency to potential security issues, we must also ensure that our school has the appropriate means of controlling access to our facilities. As such, door hardware and access control systems are the primary component of this grant application to provide the means for US to properly perform lockdowns and lockouts in response to any events which could threaten our student and staff population. A DHS survey on our facilities was used to identify the priority areas for which our facilities needed improvement to be properly secured; another of these items is to provide security film to our tempered glass doors and windows, along with installing a new PA system at our elementary school where there is currently not an operational system as communication is vital in the event of an emergency. Also included is a panic button as IT is imperative to have a means of requesting immediate assistence in an emergency situation, and training for our security team to ensure they are well equipped to act in the event of an incident, to respond appropriatelyand quickly thus aiding in the mitigation of safety and security events. Our goal with all aspects of our grant is to: -prevent school violence incidents/events, including active shooters, assailants, and assaults. -ensure the safety and security of our students by implementing necessary tools and mechanisms in our facilities to minimize improper and/or unrestricted access to and around our schools. -train our security force to identify, respond to, and minimize the potential for incidents to occur in the first place or escalate once they begin. From an awareness and education standpoint, we are and continue to work with our staff and teachers to ensure all members of our school administration are properly trained to recognize mental health issues, be proactive in conflict resolution and otherwise be aware of the needs of our students to the best extent possible. We have utilized evidence and research based principles in developing our security plans, procedures and protocols. In addition to those plans, however, what we are missing and now seeking to do is to ensure the plans are able to be implemented from a physical standpoint. As a district, we have been able to implement some aspects of the needed mechanisms, but svpps grant funding assistance is vital for our district to be able to tackle the highest priority items identified by the security assessments performed on our schools. We believe the items included in this grant will proactively reduce and deter potential events from occurring. We are familiar with the concepts of cpted and believe that the built environment can be used to greatly impact the decision making of potential offenders. A secured facility, which still promotes a warm learning environment, will go a long way to achieving these goals.