As a lifelong educator who has served in various roles in the education field, I’ve gained extensive insight into what it takes to keep students safe. I understand what it takes to grant students the sense of safety that empowers them to learn and thrive. As the former board chair of DeKalb County School District (GA), I advocated strongly for investments in technology designed to create safe schools. By making the CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ the foundation of school safety plans in DeKalb County, we helped create a culture of safety for students and staff.
Educators are mission-focused. Our mission is to provide a quality education for the benefit of all children. Quality education is not limited to academic achievement, however. It encompasses safety and student well-being. Our schools must feel safe so that teachers can provide the highest quality education.
The Safety Mandate
Safety is a basic need. When schools meet this need for students and staff, they create an environment that empowers students to learn. Therefore, it is a moral imperative for school boards to take action and invest in developing safe schools. Doing so lays the groundwork for effective teaching and learning.
Parents rely on schools to keep students safe. When parents send their children off to school in the morning, they want to be certain that they will return home in the same condition as when they were left. Unfortunately, recent incidents of violence in schools have sown the seeds of doubt for parents about their students’ safety. School board leaders are therefore responsible for adopting policies and practices that keep every one of their students safe.
Safety is a Community Effort
In a district that prioritizes creating safe schools, everyone participates in the multi-faceted responsibility of keeping students safe. This burden falls heavily on teachers, of course. But every member of a school community shares in it: custodians, nutritional workers, principals, assistant principals, and school resource officers. Everyone’s common mission is to nurture the safety and well-being of the entire community, enabling students to fully engage in academic instruction.
Teachers and staff have a right to come to work and feel safe. Administrators and school boards can help instill this sense of safety by involving staff in safety planning and equipping them with the necessary tools to feel secure. In recent years, increasing awareness about staff mental health needs has motivated school leaders to promote efforts to support staff wellness. By meeting staff members’ basic need for safety, administrators and boards make an essential investment in their mental well-being. When discussing safe schools, we must always prioritize the mental well-being of every school community member.
School Boards Create Peace of Mind with CENTEGIX
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform is a modern solution for today’s school environments. As board chair, I advocated for our district to invest in school safety technology to create a safety culture in which students and teachers could thrive.
I encountered some initial resistance to purchasing and implementing new school safety systems. But over several years, I worked to communicate to fellow board members that students today are living under a new paradigm. Given the threats of violence that exist in today’s educational institutions, inaction risks our children’s safety.
Ultimately, DeKalb County School District invested in CENTEGIX school safety solutions to help implement our school safety plans. I strongly believe that our decision to combine increased efforts to support students’ emotional safety with CENTEGIX school safety technology has helped us achieve the goal of peace and tranquility in our schools.
Our teachers are equipped with CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™ wearable panic buttons. This allows them to request help by pushing a button on their wearable badge. This alert is immediately transmitted to school leaders and designated responders, who provide support during all types of emergencies. School staff can activate the school safety plan by initiating an alert on their CrisisAlert badge. Just imagine the peace teachers feel knowing that when they simply push a button on the device worn on a lanyard around their neck, help will show up.
Teachers and Staff Appreciate CENTEGIX Safety Platform
Our teachers and staff affirm that implementing the CENTEGIX Safety Platform in our schools was the right decision. Our personnel see that implementing CENTEGIX solutions has had excellent outcomes: teachers feel safe, and therefore both teachers and students can thrive. Schools will undoubtedly see a strong return on investment with CENTEGIX school safety solutions. But a feeling of peace and security among staff is a powerful return on investment right now.
CrisisAlert Deters Disruptive Behavior
In our schools, we have observed that equipping staff with CrisisAlert badges minimizes the need for disciplinary action in classrooms. As all educators know, student behavior is affected not only by what we say, but also by what we demonstrate. When students know their teacher can press a button and other school personnel will arrive to help, they are less likely to behave in a disruptive way. We have found that CrisisAlert badges can deter children prone to outbursts and can de-escalate behavior disruptions.
Visitor Management Creates Peace of Mind for Parents
CENTEGIX Visitor Management allows schools to authenticate and manage visitors on campus. As part of the Safety Platform, Visitor Management enables staff to quickly and efficiently check in and authenticate visitors. This provides peace of mind that everyone who enters our buildings is verified and permitted to be there. When parents or other visitors enter our schools, they cannot enter the campus without checking in and following the school safety plan protocols. All parents understand that everyone on campus has been processed in the same manner, and that school staff have verified that only individuals with the right intentions for the children are allowed on campus.
CENTEGIX: Emerging Technology and Training
In an industry where technology is rapidly changing, CENTEGIX evolves to meet districts’ needs as they emerge. Based on our ongoing relationship with CENTEGIX, our board is confident that we will always be informed about emerging technologies and best practices, and that our CENTEGIX technology will continue to evolve. Knowing that CENTEGIX is our long-term partner in creating safe schools makes me confident that the peace and tranquility fostered by the Safety Platform will continue.
As our district vetted potential school safety systems, CENTEGIX stood out as a subject matter authority. Their staff is well-versed in ongoing developments in their industry and effective at communicating how to use CENTEGIX technology to keep staff and students safe. The safety of each and every student in our district matters, and CENTEGIX understands this. They therefore operate with integrity and fidelity to help schools accomplish their mission and create the most effective school safety plans possible.
Board Leaders Choose CENTEGIX for Safe Schools
I have made and contributed to many decisions during my DeKalb County School District Board tenure. I put choosing and implementing CENTEGIX in my top five. Though it required that I overcome some initial resistance, our board became united in its purpose to keep our children safe. I have never second-guessed our decision to choose CENTEGIX. There are many competing school safety technologies on the market, but for us, CENTEGIX stepped up to support and facilitate our efforts to create a culture of safety in our schools.
Now, on our campuses, staff feel the peace that comes with knowing that when an emergency occurs, they’re ready and not alone. The schoolhouse should be a sanctuary where students and staff feel safe. As board leaders, our investments have the power to minimize the feelings of anxiety and fear that are prevalent in our students’ world. And the CENTEGIX Safety Platform is an investment in safe schools.
See for yourself how your school board can implement the CENTEGIX Safety Platform to help create safe schools in your district.
