COMBO's S.A.F.E. Blog

School Safety Audit/Security Vulnerability Assessment

COMBO — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:00:51 +0000

Our friends at the TX School Safety Center have some excellent resources available online and for FREE.

S.A.F.E. TEAM is in the Top 50 for the Video Contest PLEASE for US!!!

COMBO — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:51:02 +0000

As of August 1st, you can go and cast your vote for the S.A.F.E. TEAM video as part of the American Airlines and SCORE Association contest. Help us make it to the finals to win over $50k in tickets, advertising and promotion. Vote every day for the S.A.F.E. TEAM video. Checkout the following press releases to learn more.

A diagram of a Successful model for Academic Success

COMBO — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:45:00 +0000

As we start programs throughout the country focused on our mission to "support family engagement and a safe-learning environment in every school so all students can achieve academic succe", our staff learns about and views many education models setup within school communities. Every school community has different variables/challenges and need to adjust accordingly so students can achieve academic success. Through America's Promise Alliance and the Grad Nation Summit in 2011, we learned of the organization Communities in Schools(CIS). As we followed CIS on Facebook since the Summit, we saw this diagram that describes the work they do within a school community.

The first thing that popped out to several of our team members is the number of resources it takes to support students. In some communities, these services are readily available because their families have the finances and/or prior education to personally support them or will seek out the services. Within several school communities, many of these services are not easily accessed. We challenge you to understand the needs of your school community and how you can support them and their vision so each student may graduate and become a productive citizen of the USA.

As part of this vision, we invite you engage families by starting a S.A.F.E. TEAM program in your district's schools.

Does your school district have a volunteer background check policy?

COMBO — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:45:32 +0000

The CIO for S.A.F.E. TEAM, Scott Huse, was recently published in Campus Safety magazine. If your school already has or is planning to have a volunteer background check policy, review Scott's article and pass it on to your school leadership. There are many points to consider when devising this type of policy.

Article: Middle School Recruits Parents

COMBO — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:00:34 +0000

This article just published in the Menifee section of the North County Times in California. We love to hear the vision of Principal Resnick, "We're asking 870 parents to give one day each."

50 million students in 103,000 schools

COMBO — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:30:07 +0000

The latest stats have been released on our public schools in the USA. We are always curious to understand the enormity of the challenge we face not only to offer public education to all children, but to do it with excellence. Here's some of the latest information.

U.S. ED’s IES’ NCES U PDATES NUMBERS AND TYPES OF PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This First Look presents findings on the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States and the territories in the 2009-10 school year.

Findings include:
• About 49 million students attended 98,817 operating public elementary/secondary schools in the 2009–10 school year.
• Almost 1.6 million students were enrolled in 4,952 charter schools in 2009-10.
• Across all active regular public schools with students, the pupil/teacher ratio in 2009-10 was 16.1. Pupil/teacher ratio ranged from 10.9 in Vermont to 23.4 in Utah.

The CCD and this report are products of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences.

Effective Leaders Communicate Effectively

COMBO — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:15:52 +0000

The CIO for Schools And Families Engaged, Scott Huse, invested time on April 30th to offer a keynote and workshop for the AR PTA leaders. The workshop was extremely interactive discussing the Myth Busters: 1. All fathers and families are involved in education 2. It will never happen here, regarding safe school environments. During membership luncheon, Scott had the opportunity to train all the conference attendees on their personality styles and communication. Watch the picture video below and enjoy the sounds from Hooooooog country!! Woooo Piiiiig Sooooooie!!

Interview with IL PTA President at Convention

COMBO — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:10:44 +0000

School Safety Assessment Checklist by NCEF

COMBO — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:55:15 +0000

S.A.F.E TEAM is promoting access to this great FREE resource at NCEF (National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities).

NCEF provides a free checklist that combines the nation's best school facility assessment measures into one online source for assessing the safety and security of school buildings and grounds. It includes over 400 measures covering school surroundings, school grounds, buildings and facilities, communications systems, building access control and surveillance, utility systems, mechanical systems, and emergency power. The checklist is updated frequently and may be used for planning and designing new facilities or assessing existing ones.

Is your school/district staying current on schools safety assessments?

Updating and Upgrading

COMBO — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:52:07 +0000

We have updated our Facebook page to connect and engage more friends of S.A.F.E. TEAM. Help us pass it on. Click the Facebook and Twitter share buttons on this page.