Core butte charter school - school violence prevention project - butte county, CA core butte charter school completed a vulnerability study in the spring of 2023 to determine areas of risk and need in…

Core butte charter school - school violence prevention project - butte county, CA core butte charter school completed a vulnerability study in the spring of 2023 to determine areas of risk and need in the circumstance that the school may be subject to a high risk event. Team members included the school executive director, school directors, operations officer and front desk administrative assistants. As part of the study, the team partnered with our county office of educations director of emergency preparedness and local law enforcement. Based on the findings of the vulnerability assessment study, the team determined immediate needs. The outcome of the vulnerability assessment showed major areas of need in the physical infrastructure of the school as well as proper communication equipment and resources. To resolve these needs, the school is seeking to increase visibility and deter activity with surveillance cameras and lighting installation. Efforts to increase communication will be made with cell-coverage boost, portable digital radios, and seeking new and more efficient phone and intercom systems that allow the entire school to get emergency communication at the same time. This program will also align with new alert lockdown buttons located at the front desks of the schools buildings and in the offices of school directors. The current phone system does not have sufficient intercom capabilities and the upgraded phone system would allow the entire school to hear the notices at the same time. With distances across the campus and noisy classrooms, vital communication could be missed. Having the capability to have a school wide intercom system for important safety alerts is imperative. Equipment needs would include, controller, IP paging adapter and scheduler, emergency push buttons, horn and ceiling speakers, visual alerter, and other miscellaneous wiring and hardware. In addition, large sections of our indoor facilities have cellular dead zones with limited to no cellular signal, making IT difficult for staff, students, and parents to utilize their mobile phones in the case of an emergency. Cellular boosters will be needed to improve the overall cellular coverage. The schools facilities are located in an area that does not have much lighting. Much of the rear section of the schools facilities are without any proper lighting on the pathways, field, high school quad area and main walkways. Much of the current lighting is old and not very bright and the school would upgrade the lighting to be brighter and more broad. The school would increase safety and usage of the facilities should the lighting be added to these areas. The school is located on a high traffic bike path, and parallel to the freeway, making IT an easily accessible location for our areas transient population. Core butte charter school relocated to our current facility in 2019. While safety and emergency preparedness needs were taken into account during the remodel and construction process, we were not fiscally able to address all necessary deterrent measures and communication upgrades at that time. These additional federal funds should allow US to fully implement our school violence prevention initiatives.