At the Oxford Board of Education’s Jan. 8 meeting, school safety was once again a topic of discussion. As he does most meetings, Sam Barna, Oxford Schools’ assistant superintendent of business operations, updated the board on the district’s ongoing safety efforts and ALICE training.

Oxford Middle School became the final school in the district to start receiving ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate) active-shooter readiness training this month. The students receive the training during their advisory period.

“We have been training our internal staff, we’ve been training subs, and it’s not a one-time thing,” Barna said. “It’s ongoing training. Over the course of the last seven months we’ve trained the vast majority of staff… We’re using this month to teach the students ALICE protocol.”

Along similar lines to the ALICE program, the district received 3D mapping from PrePlanLive, the CEO of which has two children enrolled in Oxford Schools. These maps equip the district to create plans for events of an active shooter or another safety emergency.

“We’re continuing down the path with PrePlanLive to develop, with their 3D modelling both internally and externally within our buildings in the district, this emergency communication platform,” Barna said.

Barna also addressed safety updates that were planned at Oxford High School over the summer. The improvements that have yet to be made are bollards in the school’s entry drive and a gate for the rear of the school. Barna said these projects are still on the district’s to-do list, but were unable to be finished before the academic year got started.

Aside from the updates at the high school, Clear Lake Elementary received a video-equipped doorbell in November 2018 that will allow secretaries to speak with and see someone before granting them access to the building. Board Secretary Heather Shafer and Trustee Mary Hanser both spoke with approval of the doorbells, which are installed at many of the district’s buildings.

“There’s no point in having lockdown systems, security trainings or ALICE trainings if everybody can just walk into our buildings,” Shafer said. “(Locked doors) are something I see that has really come around (180 degrees), I think, in all of our buildings.”

“I don’t like the feeling of high security, but we’ve made it really comfortable here… That’s one of the things I would look at when moving to a community,” Hanser later added.

Later in the meeting, Board President Tom Donnelly discussed the board’s focus on schools safety with incoming trustees Hanser, Erick Foster and Chad Griffth.

“One of the things I’m very proud of in our district is the amount of energy we spend on addressing the environment in which our kids learn,” Donnelly said.