PFO Meeting Minutes 10-11-16

1. Introduction

Purpose of PFO is to support Leopold students, families and staff

Guests present:

  • Officer Scott Beckfield, Madison Police, Arbor Hills Neighborhood officer
  • Luis Yudice, Coordinator of School Safety & Security, MMSD

2. Fall Fiesta

  • Raised about $3000
  • Date for next year’s event is Sept 23

3. Safety & Security Discussion

•Principal Sloan

-Some increased incidences of criminal activity recently including vandalism to Leopold school (windows broken)

  • There is activity around school at all times, grounds are used by neighborhood families, sports practices, etcwhen school not in session
  • There has been consideration of a school grounds supervisor during non-school hours

-There are detailed support/contingency plans for emergencies or other safety concerns that are discussed with teachers and staff

-Review of the recent “Security Precautions” event (recent shooting during the school day in the neighborhood)

  • Outdoor recess was cancelled, held inside recess
  • Communication was made with families as soon as Ms. Sloan had information available and could get it translated. MMSD was able to translate a message quickly.
  • Leopold only had clearance to release the hold about 10 min before end of school
  • Took extra precautions to make sure kids walking home in the area were safe by using Walking School bus. Many staff helped to walk kids home.
  • Many younger kids unaware of the event
  • Car was detained in front of school and news crew was out front as well. Concerning for many parents. Car was detained by Sheriff’s office and not Madison Police.

-Communication with families during security events

  • Ms. Sloan acknowledges there are some areas of improvement needed

-Better notification to families during and after incident

-Parents would like more detailed information about what students may have noticed so they are prepared to discuss at home

-MMSD is able to send group text messages, however, there are limitations with what can be sent in Spanish so it’s often not used.

-Translation can limit timeliness occasionally

-Limited information is often available

-Ms. Sloan would like to know if people need resources or are interested in more formal discussions about how to talk to kids about security events

•Neighborhood Officer ScottBeckfield, MPD

-On the day of the security event he worked with the school to make sure kids in area affected were safe when going home

-Was informed of the security event when it happened and was in contact with Leopold

•LuisYudice, Coordinator of School Safety & Security, MMSD

-He is a former police officer and has many years of experience around the state with school safety and security.

-There is good communication/partnership between the school district and the Madison Police Department (MPD)

-MMSD focuses on keeping students safe and secure and monitors the incident in order to step up security if needed

  • Initial step is "Safety Precautions"

-Leopold was not in a “lockdown” as report by media during the recent event. A Secure Hold or lockdown is an event in which kids are not allowed to leave the classroom such as during a school intruder indicent

-During recent event Leopold was undergoing Safety Precautions which means outside recess was cancelled and kids were kept within the school until the surrounding neighborhoods were deemed safe by police

-Communication with families during events

  • Initially during an event, MMSD is focused more on the safety of the students rather than communication of information to families. Thiscan sometimes result in a delay with communication.

-School district will always work to release information to families as quickly as possible

  • There are many layers of communication. Police are focused on controlling the situation and may not always be able to provide real-time information to MMSD

-Situations are often changing quickly - May not have that much official information from police yet because they are busy taking care of the incident

-Media may release information first before MMSD is able to communicate with families - that's out of MMSD’s control. Informationfrom media sources may not always be correct or “official” from the MPD.

-MMSD is careful with information sharing due to the limited nature of information available from the MPD. If it’s a police incident, the MPD is in charge of what information is released to the public. This may be limited due the nature of the event (security purposes).

-Because of the size of the school district,MMSD has had lots of experience with security incidents

  • Debriefing is always done after events and feedback evaluated to try to improve for future incidents

-General increase in gun related incidents in Madison

  • Possibly due to increase in availability of firearms?
  • How is MPD addressing the increased incidents in the area?

-Police presence increased in the area

-Incidents have been isolated, are not related, and most are not gang or drug related which makes it more difficult to address.

5. Leopold Community Walk

•Planned for this Thursday

•There was a recent discussion with school leadership team if event should still happen as planned because of recent neighborhood incident

•Ms. Sloan interested in how families feel about doing the walk

-Overall opinion of those in attendancewas supportive of doing walk as planned