SRO Pickens

Over the last three years the Star City School District has made big changes to increase safety. The Star City School Board has approved security camera upgrades, construction projects including upgrading building entrances with security access, improving safety at Jimmy Brown Elementary with covered sidewalks, and a safer traffic process. This summer the district has invested in parking and traffic upgrades, which will allow traffic flow to improve at the elementary and be safer.

“For the last 15 years, a person could simply walk through the front doors, and into a classroom or straight into the hallway and access our kids. With the new safety entrances, that has changed. Just inside the building, the vestibules add additional secured doors so that once you go inside, you have to have permission to go anywhere else in the building," Superintendent Jon Laffoon said. 

At tonight's board meeting the administration and the board approved a partnership with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office for two SRO’s for the 2019-2020 school year. "Our administration and board felt it was a priority that we get all campuses secure and have SRO’s on campus, so that we can feel safe everyday," Laffoon stated. "We needed to be proactive. We've been very fortunate in the Star City School District to have great community support, support from our city, and support from the county. We know that we've been very fortunate, but we just felt that we needed to be proactive and have two SRO’s in place to start the school year. Our students deserve a safer campus, we have safety and traffic issues that have been corrected and our students and staff will have two SRO’s to keep them safe,” Laffoon added.

Just a reminder for the new school year that visitors must check in at the front entrance and have a state issued ID to enter the building and to check out students. Building and district safety teams are working to implement safer procedures district wide. “Our district safety team met again last week and it is great to see the changes that have been implemented in the past year, including a focus on emergency drills, safety plans, and safety “go-bags” for every classroom,” said Director of Student Services, Jordan Frizzell. We look forward to a great school year and a continued emphasis on improving our district for our students.