After the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the Beacon City School District Superintendent Landahl emailed district families to update them on what the district has been doing over the years if a response to a threat of an armed person were to happen. In the letter, Dr. Landahl stated: “I know last week was hard for all of us due to the tragic mass shooting in Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. I wanted to take an opportunity to review several school safety/security initiatives we have undertaken over the past few years. In short, safety is our highest priority and one we focus on daily. ”

These included an anonymous tip line, building emergency plans, the hiring of a security consulting firm, and investments in security systems, some of which were financed by state bonds instead of district funds.

From his note, the following initiatives were mentioned:

District and Building Emergency Planning

“The district and each of our school buildings have emergency plans that are updated and reviewed every year. Our buildings have secured doors and one point of entry for visitors to schools. Visitors are screened by our security staff and identification has to be presented and checked.”

Positive Relationship with the Beacon Police Department and the Town of Fishkill Police Department

“Our local law enforcement agencies are involved in all of our state-required school lockdown drills. They regularly tour all of our buildings and work closely with our administrative team. They also help to provide security at our largest events like Friday night football games which attract hundreds of spectators. We are grateful for our ongoing and positive working relationship and appreciate all of the support they give us.”

Altaris Security Consulting

“In the winter of 2017 (see a list of shootings here), we hired Altaris Security Consulting through a BOCES contract to provide us with a full security audit of all of the buildings in the district. Altaris works with a large number of school districts in the region on improving school and district safety and security. They also provide training to our administrative team, guidance to our District Emergency Response Team, and ongoing support to all of our Building Emergency Response teams as well.”

BCSD Director of Security and the Security Team

“We established the Director of Security position in the spring of 2017. Our Director of Security, Mark Thomas who is retired from the Beacon Police Department, works with all of our school security staff and building and district administration to provide day-to-day security for school, after school and weekend events, and anything else that comes up. Mark also works closely with each building on drills and reviews security concerns on a regular basis with each school. Our school security team does an excellent job monitoring our buildings.”

Investment in Upgrading External and Internal Security Systems

“This past summer and during this school year, the BCSD had all of our security cameras replaced and every building was outfitted with a lockdown system that alerts the police immediately when a school goes into lockdown. We used New York Smart Bond money instead of district funds for these needed upgrades of our security technology infrastructure.”

Increased Mental Health Funding

“Over the past three years, the BCSD has added 2 full-time social workers to the secondary level to assist with growing mental health needs. Rombout and Beacon High School have 2 psychologists, and 4 social workers combined. Each elementary school has a psychologist and social worker as well. In next year’s budget, we added a one-year position to foster restorative practices and peer mediation programs at the high school and have increased funding for social/emotional programming at the elementary and middle school levels.”

Anonymous Tip Line

The district has an anonymous tip line on our website for all to use to share concerns with district administrators anonymously. Here is what it looks like at the top of our website or you can use this link: https://www.beaconk12.org/Page/1938