From the superintendent’s desk

School safety a priority for district

Hello Stockbridge Families,

School safety is an ongoing focus for our school district. Student and staff safety is a priority. In August, we provided ALICE Training for our staff. This training provides detailed information on how to respond to an intruder in the building. It explores various types of responses that can be tailored to any given situation as needed. These skills are transferable to all aspects of life. ALICE stands for: Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate.

During the 2022-2023 school year, the district leadership team was trained on a new threat assessment tool. This program was designed by the U.S. Secret Service and Michigan State Police provided the training. This process is an expanded look at the many aspects of an individual’s participation in school and brings multiple individuals that know the students to the team to provide input on how to best respond to the situation.

Each building in the district has a crisis team that will provide guidance when a crisis arises. This team will develop a response for the situation and figure out how to best meet the needs of students, staff and our families. The team also will discuss how to communicate with all of the vested stakeholders.

Throughout the year, each building is required to engage in multiple building level drills; including fire drills, tornado drills, and emergency response drills. We are required to report our annual drill information to the state of Michigan after they are completed.

The board approved the implementation of vape detectors at the secondary building. We know that the use of vaping devices is an ongoing problem throughout our society and these vape detectors will help to keep these devices and their harmful effects out of our schools.

The mental health team meets regularly to discuss student needs and to develop plans for implementation throughout the district. Additional mental health workers have been added over the past two years, including additional counselors and social work support.

The transportation team conducts annual bus evacuation drills with students that include exit drills from both the front and rear of the bus. Our fleet has undergone a makeover with exterior lighting that will provide better visibility. We also have implemented a new communication plan to quickly communicate with families when we know that students are likely to be more than 15 minutes late arriving home. This plan was initiated from parent input and their desire to know more quickly when their students will be arriving late.

Each year the district administration discusses and updates our Emergency Operations Plan. This year we have SEC, a school safety company coming into the district to evaluate our programs and make recommendations on how we can improve.

This fall we will be adding a school resource officer for the district. This officer will help in providing a safe learning environment and provide a deterrent for inappropriate behavior. Our school liaison also will assist  in promoting good habits and a healthy learning environment.

We will continue to develop and refine all of these programs as needed. We are excited for the new year and are working to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for our students and staff.

Go Panthers!

Brian Friddle
Superintendent of Schools