March 5, 2018

Dear Monroe Public Schools Family,

Over the recent weeks, school safety has been at the center of our hearts and thoughts. It is in these moments where we hold our children closer, give them extra reminders, and inquire more to those whom we trust to care for and guide them when we, as parents, are not present.  Thank you for entrusting your child’s safety and learning to us. We understand that this trust is one of the biggest honors that a person can offer to another, and that with this honor comes a high level of emotion, accountability, and expectation. Thank you for your questions, comments, ideas, and support over the recent weeks.  

We have gathered some common points from our conversations with families to include in this letter. Monroe Public Schools has adopted an aggressive set of measures to maintain safety as a priority.  We are proud of what is in place thus far, and we will continue to monitor, refine, and add new techniques to continuously improve the safety of our schools.   Please feel free to review this information with your child, as there can never be too many conversations regarding school safety.

Police Presence: Currently, Monroe Public Schools has two police officers stationed in the district every day.  We refer to them as School Resource Officers or Police Liaisons. Officer Brian Winsjansen, or Officer Winnie, is a member of the City of Monroe Police Department, and he mainly services our schools located in the City of Monroe: Arborwood, Manor, Monroe Middle School, Orchard High School, and the Learning Bank. Deputy Joe Hammond is a member of the Monroe County Sheriff Department, and he serves the schools outside of the city limits: Custer, Raisinville, Waterloo, and Monroe High School.  Both of our officers assist each other and our staff, however and whenever needed.

ALICE Training:  Our staff and students have been trained in ALICE, and we will continue to refresh these trainings.  ALICE stands for:

Alert​:  Make everyone aware of a threat immediately. A speedy response is critical.

Lockdown:  ​If evacuation is not a safe option, barricade entry points to the room in an effort to create a semi-secure starting point.

Inform: Communicate information over every channel possible in real time, keeping everyone informed. Counter​: Create noise, movement, distance, and distraction with the intent of reducing the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately if the shooter invades your space. Counter is NOT fighting and is intended to be a last resort.
Evacuate: When safe to do so, remove yourself from the danger zone.    ​
 

Our elementary schools have taught the ALICE techniques through a method called PAL (Pause, Adult, Listen).  In short, we ask students and staff to do the following whenever there is a safety threat of any nature in a school building:

1. Listen carefully to the location and type of event.
2. Get to and/or remain in a secure area until it is safe to evacuate.
3. Should an armed intruder/active killer invade their area, apply skills to distract, confuse, and gain control.
4. As soon as it is safe to do so, evacuate.

Safety Equipment: To enter any of our schools, all visitors need to be buzzed in by staff in the school’s main office. Staff in the main office have a camera and voice feed to the prospective visitor, who is asked to present their identification. Staff verify that the person is able to enter the building. All visitors to our schools who wish to visit spaces beyond the main office have their identifications run through the Raptor Visitor Management System, which screens that individual for prior crime offenses and sex offender registries. Volunteers and chaperones also authorize us to perform a Michigan Criminal Background Check.  Once that individual has passed that screening, he or she is given a badge with their name and photo to ensure all staff that they have been cleared to enter the building. Our district has over 700 cameras, offering our security personnel and administrators surveillance from their computers and mobile devices.

Over the past weeks, we have been receiving many inquiries from parents, grandparents, and community stakeholders about the need for locked entrance ways in our schools, metal detectors, updated PA systems, and protective glass.  We want to know more of your thoughts on these ideas and other matters surrounding school safety.  To gather this information from you, we will be launching a special Monroe Minute Survey that will give you the opportunity to provide us with feedback on safety priorities and also let us know what next steps you would support.  Once we have the survey results, we will be scheduling safety round table discussion meetings in the district to answer questions, discuss results, and collaborate with you on the next steps.

The safety of our students and staff is at the heart of everything we do at Monroe Public Schools. We are committed to making every effort to ensure our students a learning environment in which they feel safe, secure, and focused on growing every day. In this time of uncertainty, when we cannot ever leave our guards down, we pride ourselves on maintaining this environment of precaution and protection in each of our schools every day and continuing to strengthen our protocols and procedures to keep our family safe.

Just as valuable is the support we receive from you, our dedicated family of parents, students, staff, and community members. Only together can we truly keep each other and our children safe. More than ever before, your constant vigilance is integral in ensuring the safety of our community. If you see something or hear something threatening in person or online, say something. Call us. Please encourage your child to do the same to alert school staff should they ever see or hear something that makes them feel unsafe. The diligent watch and reporting of our student, staff, and school community has already been instrumental in keeping our buildings safe and I want to commend these efforts.

We are continually thankful for our community’s safety, which is not possible without the support and strength of our community. As we look to the future of education and the conversations surrounding school safety, the thoughts, ideas, and opinions from our stakeholders are as important as ever. I am thankful for all that we are able to accomplish when we are working with each other. Now more than ever, we are stronger together. Together, we are Monroe.
 

Believe. Engage. Excel.

As Always,

Julie M. Everly
Superintendent