I believe that safety and security are vital components in providing a high quality educational experience for our families and their children.  Currently, national attention related to the events surrounding the Somer Thompson tragedy in Orange Park and the local focus upon stories relating to Jacksonville crime have heightened everyone’s awareness.  I cannot say strongly enough that at RPDS we always hold your children’s safety as a sacred trust.  We are proactive, balanced and thoughtful in securing our campus.

As you know, the RPDS buildings are gated, locked and our grounds are monitored by 24 hour video equipment.  In addition, we are uniquely blessed to have parents employed by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office who are able to provide direct access to our local police and more generally, as a school, we are supplied with immediate information to “lock-down” our campus should local conditions ever warrant that necessity.  However, we all agree that carpool drop-off/pickup and our Oak St. Plaza area that children often utilize as lunch space and a gathering spot prior to physical education lessons provide unique safety challenges.  Accordingly, you will notice some changes on our campus that provide additional security and that also are intended to provide reassurance and confidence to our families.  You will notice that:

• our ELC security guard, Officer Anthony McDonald, has been moved outdoors circulating in the Lane House/ELC parking areas and along the sidewalks at that end of campus;

• we have taken immediate steps to hire one additional security officer for the main school entrance end of Oak St. Plaza and our other parking lots.  This increases our ability to control access to each end of the campus;

• we are immediately adjusting the long-standing policy that individuals walking onto the RPDS campus are merely observed and filmed, and instead will follow a new procedure to approach such individuals asking “how can we be helpful?” and/or “may I help you find someone on our campus?” As background it may be helpful to know that the area we know as “Oak St. Plaza” used to be a city street.  A “good neighbor” approach has allowed local retirees and office personnel known to us to pass through campus.  We will now be teaching area residents that our campus is a fully functioning school that must control who enters its campus when children are present;

• at lunch we have teachers and security stationed at each end of Oak St. Plaza and our 2nd Graders eat in the semi enclosed inset area of the plaza instead of spreading out among all tables;

• we now have spring closures installed on our black metal gates to ensure that the play area fence and Kissling fence automatically close behind those who pass;

• adults escort children moving after school hours and guide their movement to follow a path leading ONLY “fence-to-fence” and NOT allowing walking, even in groups, along the brick pathway to “Riverside in the Afternoon” classrooms;

We will continue audit the security of our campus to pinpoint any unknown weaknesses in our procedures.  We also are diligently working on a major capital improvement to enlarge our fenced play space and picnic area in June 2010 so that in the future all children will eat inside a secure fenced area (we will covet your help with that project).  Finally, we are meeting with the “Joint Committee” of the church/school leadership at its November gathering to present our security concerns, a need for additional signage and to collectively address school/church security issues.

All RPDS teachers and staff have been instructed to act as “eyes and ears” on our campus and to see themselves as important security personnel.  Parents have been especially helpful in the last two weeks to bolster our security camera system and the adult presence on campus at carpool.  I welcome your continued help.  I also ask in advance for your patience and understanding if you are stopped on campus by an adult.  We all are simply acting to provide the utmost security for our children!

Campus security is an ever-evolving set of facilities, procedures and advanced planning.  Please contact me at pbell@rpds.com or by phoning me at 904-353-5511 x131 if there are other suggestions we can employ to further augment this work.  I greatly appreciate your help and support.

Sincerely,

H.  Palmer Bell
Headmaster

Books will continue to line the walls of the library, but they will also be organized into shelf stacks allowing for hundreds of new volumes to be added to the 17,000+ currently in the library.  The reading area will be surrounded by movable shelves so that the area can be expanded to accommodate visiting authors and meetings.  The office and work areas will be relocated to one end of the space, creating more room for staff and computer workstations, which will become full-functioning with internet access.

Becky Cox, Media Center specialist, lights up when she talks about the new library, but she’s also found that, like all house cleaning, she’s had to rid the space of a lot of “stuff” she’s collected over the years.  “I’ve gathered nineteen boxes of books that have never been checked out,” she laments.  “But I can’t wait until the children come back in the fall and see all of the changes.”

The other change returning students will see is in the computer lab.  Like the library, the computer lab will undergo significant remodeling.  Not only will the space be rearranged to allow for more computer workstations and more efficient teacher workspace, but it will also now accommodate SmartBoard technology and include construction of a fully-functioning broadcast center.

Technology Instructor, Tamara Bader, has been trying to organize a multi-media program for some time now.  “The new broadcast room will give us the tools necessary for students to produce podcasts for the student body and also on the Web,” she elaborates.  “We hope to begin production of a daily in-class newscast of current events and school happenings.”

“Students will gain an awareness of news events and they will perform all aspects of production,” she continues.  “They will learn presentation skills, and scripting, which requires them to tell a story quickly and clearly.  And, of course, there’s the coordination skills required in organizing the entire broadcast effort.”

Construction of the Library/Media Center was completed the end of August, just in time for the opening of the 2009-2010 school year.