PULASKI COUNTY, Va. – Pulaski school leaders are putting student safety and school security on the top of their list of things to address this year, like many other schools in the region.
On Tuesday, the Pulaski County School Board completed a series of meetings that were held to evaluate and go over school policies and procedures for student safety and school security, according to a Pulaski County Public Schools press release.
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The board and other leaders went over the following things during the meeting, according to the release:
- School security audits that were conducted by the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office and Virginia State Police in 2018, to determine which of the remaining large ticket items could be addressed with funding,
- Principals of schools joined to discuss discipline data including specific incidents that were reported to law enforcement, as well as the types of consequences for major disciplinary infractions to determine if additional resources might be helpful,
- Each school’s safety plan that was created in July with input from local law enforcement, fire departments, and other first responders was reviewed and the board was presented with copies,
- Administrators went over the board’s policies that covered the student code of conduct, discipline for special education students, relations with local law enforcement, and guidelines for suspension & expulsion from school.
PCPS superintendent, Dr. Kevin Siers said that school safety is top-of-the-mind for Pulaski County.
“The safety of our students and staff is always our top priority going into each school year,” Siers said. “We are fortunate to be in a community that shares this priority which allowed us to be one of the first school divisions in the state to put a resource officer at each school. Thanks to a great working relationship with local law enforcement, our faculty, and staff members are some of the best-trained educators around and we will continue to work to make sure that our schools are as safe as possible.”
PCPS School Board Chairwoman, Dr. Paige Cash, added that the system has been improving and building relationships with local authorities to promote that safety.
“Pulaski County Public schools had state and local law enforcement complete a security audit of all county schools in the spring of 2018 and began making safety and security improvements immediately thereafter,” said Cash. “Working with the sheriff’s department, we were also able to place a school resource officer in every school in the county. With the cooperation of stakeholders in the community, we will continue to make our county schools as safe as they can possibly be.”
School leaders will begin to address some of the safety-related capital projects in preparation for the 2023-2024 budget year, according to the release.