SOLON — School safety and security has been a hot-button topic for many years in response to several high-profile incidents on school grounds and in school buildings. In the wake of the Uvalde, Texas incident in May 2022 Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced $75 million in federal pandemic relief funds would be dedicated to providing enhanced security measures for 1,500 school buildings. The Solon Community School District (SCSD), like many districts across the state, has been slogging through the process to make those enhancements a reality.
“Because it was originally federal funds, there are greater hoops to jump through, a greater accountability of that money,” said Superintendent Davis Eidahl. “That amount of money was enough to provide every school building within every district $50,000 to enhance security in a variety of ways.
With Solon having four buildings we were eligible for $200,000.”
Step one of the grant process was to conduct a safety audit of each school building. Districts had the option of using a state-approved consultant (from out of state) or turning to their local law enforcement agency to conduct the survey following the same guidelines.
“With our relationship with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) and them being so familiar with our schools, we chose to use them,” Eidahl said. Last August members of the JCSO and Johnson County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) met with the district’s administrative team and discussed existing plans and policies before touring each building with its principal and building and grounds director Bryan Heinsius. Within a few weeks the district received written assessments, which were key to completing the grant application.
“We are in pretty good shape as far as how our entrances are (locking interior doors and diverting visitors through the office). But we had enough to spend per building, so it comes down to video surveillance.” Eidahl pointed out the district has had an extensive array of cameras in the buildings, but with the grant, the district will be able to replace obsolete units and fill in gaps in camera coverage.
“We’re going to invest $235,000 into cameras alone (across the four schools) to increase the number of cameras and enhancing the camera system with cameras that will give us either a 180° or even a 360° view.” The system will also continue to be accessible by the JCSO for real time intelligence in a crisis situation. “This will make it quicker, easier, and a better view with more clarity.”
The district will also improve access control, Eidahl said. Currently many doors are set up with a key fob (to lock/unlock them), but not all. “During our assessment walks we did come across some doors that had been propped open. And we know it’s convenient sometimes to just prop a door, but the enhanced access control will be placing strikers on the doors that will notify us if a door is not fully closed or propped open. It’ll give us better notification if we do have doors that are secured or closed as they should be.
Even windows are scrutinized during the assessment process, said Eidahl. And with design trends featuring more and bigger windows to let in more natural light, which research has indicated helps to improve student learning. However, those same windows can also be a safety and security concern.
“The intermediate school, like every new school that’s designed, has a lot of glass so a shatterproof window film is going to go into those interior hallway windows also.”
Grant money alone isn’t enough to cover all of the projects.
“We’re going to spend about $328,000 (in total) for all of these enhancements.” Eidahl explained the approximately $78,000 difference will be made up through the bond issue as Lakeview Elementary is renovated and the intermediate school is expanded. Safety and security improvements for the high school and middle school (which were not included in the bond) will utilize Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) dollars.
Protecting against threats from within
While many have called for strengthening school security, making them “hardened” against outside threats, there is still the chance of a threat from within as was seen in the recent incident in Perry, Iowa where a 17-year-old student already inside the building shot five students and three administrators before killing himself.
The district’s strategic plan and district priorities include mental wellness, Eidahl said. “It’s about supporting the whole child and it’s about building relationships so you can better-recognize those signs and when you do recognize those signs, getting help more immediate and not letting it grow and fester.”
Eidahl pointed out the administrative team, JCSO, and EMA have discussed many different scenarios and how to respond including analyzing the Perry incident. “Their high school is like every high school across Iowa. Although school doesn’t start until 8:15 a.m. you’ve got a lot of activity going on by 7-7:30 a.m. with morning practices, open gym, weight room, some kids just come early to do their homework, breakfast is being served, and you just have a lot of kids entering the building. We can enhance the physical safety in the building, but we’ve got to address the mental wellness of our students.”
Eidahl said the administrative team was scheduled to meet with JCSO to look for any necessary changes in the district’s procedures or things to watch for (based on the Perry incident).
“Unfortunately, that one (Perry) would’ve been a hard one to prevent, but how can we minimize the chances of that ever happening here? The district has had a mental wellness focus for the last four-or-five years and the community is very focused on that as well.” The district has added mental health and wellness supports, he added. “Step one is making sure that all staff are building positive relationships with the kids. As we build these positive relationships, we get to know them and we can sense things,” he said. “If every kid has an adult in the building, then that adult can at least watch for signs.” Not only does the district employ counselors, but also relies on additional support for students and their families through Tanager Place in Cedar Rapids and is in a consortium with several local districts through the Grant Wood AEA to help individuals who need more than the SCSD can provide.
“We’re trying to fill in any gaps that we may have, which will be a big part of our safety.”
Preparedness, it’s not just fire and tornado drills anymore
In addition to required and traditional fire drills and tornado drills Solon students now, once per semester, go through an active intruder drill. Eidahl said the intruder drills can vary from one building to another. “We want to do our best to do age-appropriate drills. We don’t want to strike fear and angst into students. So, we do a lot of scenarios where the teacher will talk them through a scenario and then they will discuss how to respond and keeping that in the back of their minds so if we did have an incident, how we handle it. Unfortunately, it’s something we have to prepare our kids for, we just try not to scare them in a way that they’re scared to come to school. We’re very cautious in how we conduct these drills.”
Intruder drills and training can also weigh heavily on the staff, Eidahl said. “When the district started ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) training nine years ago, it had an impact on the adults too. The anxiety that it caused, the angst, so we want to be prepared but we want to balance that.”
If you see something, say something
Safe+Sound Iowa hotline for anonymous threat reporting – 800-224-6018 or https://dps.iowa.gov/SafeandSoundIowa.