EPCUSD 401 Update

Good Evening D401 Stakeholders,

At tonight’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Leah Gauthier provided an update on the District’s safety protocols, communication, and training. The update detailed changes that have already been made to strengthen our existing practices, as well as further enhancements we are continuing to explore for implementation in the short- and long-term—next week, next month, next year and beyond. This work has been done in partnership with local law enforcement, as well as outside consultants, including West 40 school safety and threat assessment specialists.

Following are highlights from this presentation.

PROTOCOLS

Comprehensive Safety Audits: Comprehensive safety audits have been completed at Elm Middle School and Elmwood Park High School and are underway at John Mills and Elmwood Elementary. Findings from these audits will be delivered by the end of the month and will inform further updates to our District-wide crisis management plan.

Staff Support and School Safety Committees: School and district leaders have met with staff at each building and during a dedicated teacher institute day program to review our current safety protocols and gain their input on potential enhancements. Moving forward, each school building will have its own Safety/Crisis Committee.

School Facilities and Access: District 401 has secured entrances at each of our schools and black-out shades in all classrooms. Staff have key-fob access and identifying lanyards. In the coming weeks, we are adding alarm activation on all exterior school doors, as well as designating certain doors for authorized staff key-fob access only.

Lockdown and Shelter-in-Place Procedures: Our security consultant is reviewing our policies for how and when to implement soft or hard lockdown, as well as fire or tornado shelter-in-place, and will provide recommendations to strengthen our protocols in our crisis management plan.

Safe2Help Partnership: We recently implemented this confidential 24/7 reporting tool that allows staff, students and families to alert District leaders and police to potential concerns.

SAFETY TRAINING, DRILLS AND CHECKS

Training: We will continue to partner with the Elmwood Park Police Department to conduct mandatory safety training for all D401 staff with additional planned building-level refresher training conducted throughout the year to be lead by our SROs. This month, West 40 conducted a training session for all District staff as well as for the District’s designated threat assessment team.

Safety Drills: District 401 will continue to implement the health safety training and drills required by the Illinois State Board of Education, including: three fire drills, one shelter-in-place drill, one soft lockdown drill, one hard lockdown drill/active shooter drill and one bus evacuation drill. The District’s crisis team will continue to meet yearly with area first responders.

Cook County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit Checks: The K-9 unit completed an unannounced sweep for drugs at one district school on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. No unauthorized materials were found. The K-9 unit will make an unannounced sweep in the upcoming weeks at an additional district school. They will continue to visit district schools multiple times per year.

Updated Safety Checklists and Manuals: Building administrators will develop school safety checklists detailing their response processes and procedures with support from local law enforcement and the outside safety consultant. West 40 is supporting the District in updating our threat assessment manual.

COMMUNICATION

Urgent Communication Announcements: We are exploring new platforms to expand our ability to implement urgent communication announcements to staff, parents and high school students. This includes automated announcements and follow-up communication using Swift Reach via PowerSchool and/or the Remind app.

School Handbook Content: This summer, we will be adding detailed content about our safety practices, protocols and expectations in this document, which is provided to all parents and students at the beginning of the school year.

STAFFING

Additional Campus Monitors: We currently have two campus monitors at Elm and three at EPHS, along with one security supervisor. To support our ability to effectively monitor and supervise students in the hallways, we are exploring the possibility of adding two more campus monitors at EPHS.

Additional Full-Time School Resource Officers (SRO): Currently, we have one full-time Elmwood Park Police Department SRO for the District, along with two River Grove SROs for our schools in that community (Elmwood Park High School and the River Grove Schools). We are currently planning to add one additional full-time SRO at EPHS. The SROs will lead individualized training, build relationships with students and staff, and strengthen our safety practices.

Director for Safety and Security: We are exploring the possibility of adding a District-level director for safety and security to support, guide, train, enhance and strengthen our safety and security practices on an ongoing basis.

Our students are our future and our most important assets. Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401 remains committed to providing a safe learning environment and will continue to make the safety and well-being of our students, staff and schools our top priority. For continued updates on our efforts to enhance the safety and well-being of our students, staff and schools, please visit the School Safety section of our website.

Sincerely,

EPCUSD 401 School Board and Dr. Leah Gauthier, Superintendent of Schools

Website: https://www.epcusd401.org/
Location: 8201 West Fullerton Avenue, Elmwood Park, IL, USA
Twitter: @epcusd401