Sheldon R-8 to host active shooter exercise

Monday night’s meeting of the Sheldon R-8 School Board heard positive news about education at the state level, established a policy about school lunch charges, set a date for the district’s tax levy hearing, heard progress on summer projects and approved policy updates.

“It’s coming up in a little over a week,” said Superintendent Jason Irwin about the active shooter exercise which will be hosted by the district at its facilities on Wednesday, July 18.

Nearly every teacher along with para-professionals and other staff will be hand for the nearly day-long training to be managed by the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the Missouri State Patrol and the Vernon County Ambulance Service.

“We’ve also arranged to have some students on hand as we’ll go through a number of scenarios,” said Irwin. “One or two of them will be the shooter and others will play they’ve been injured and we’ll practice in different parts of our building.”

The superintendent asked the sheriff that this exercise teach all on hand what a hand gun and an automatic weapon sound like in the school, create several different in-school scenarios as well as vary response times.

“When I approached the sheriff about this he welcomed the idea and asked if he could use it as a training exercise for his department and I thought great,” said Irwin.

When asked how he was able to get nearly all his certified staff to be on hand in the middle of July he said, “I offered them off on one PD (professional development) work day during the school year and it will be my choice which day they can take off.”

He said having such an exercise has been a desire among staff for some time and so it took relatively little to have the staff come in, even in the summer.

Irwin spoke about conducting multiple fire drills during the year so everyone knows what the alarm sounds like, where they should go and what they should do.

“I really hope we never have anything like this happen here but these days, it’s better to know what it’s like and what we should and shouldn’t do and the same goes for the sheriff and deputies,” said Irwin.

He said the way the world is these days you can’t be too safe.

“It’s also why we’re installing the new security doors at the front entrance and the door to the cafeteria,” added the superintendent.

The new double set of doors at the front will have those entering the building to be viewed on camera with the inner doors only opened if a person in the office pushes a button.

Irwin added, “With this training and the new doors are we absolutely safe? No, but with each little step we are making our students and staff more secure and a bit Irwin told of how “some of the bad stuff” which occurs in homes and society in general – from divorce and neglect to drugs, violence and abuse – is brought into schools.

“It’s our job to be there for the students and help them deal with it all,” said Irwin.

Thirty to 35 staff will be on hand plus 15-20 students as well as some parents.

Said the superintendent, “And depending on what we learn and what the sheriff learns we’ll figure out where we’ll go from here.”

Irwin relayed the positive news of the state budget being signed and two members being nominated to the state board of education.

Governor Parson’s appointment of Carol Hallquist, former president of Hallmark Corporate Foundation and Peter Herschend, co-founder of Silver Dollar City gives that body quorum (four of seven) and on June 14, it was able to meet for the first time in six months. The board has begun a deliberate search for a new state commissioner of elementary and secondary education.

Turning the issue of how much of a bill parents can accumulate in school meal charges Irwin said, “I don’t want to see anymore $1,000 bills.”

He said there are still a few families paying down an old balance which together comes to about $3,700, “And no one’s had to pay for meals here in four years,” said the superintendent. “That’s ridiculous.”

Board member Jarod Lamb made and board member Gene Leininger seconded a motion to permit a parent to charge up $25.00 in meals for an individual student and up to $100 per family. While board member Bill Nance was absent, the rest approved the motion.

The tax levy hearing will be held on Aug. 23 at 7:45 a.m.

“From what I’ve been told, unlike last year, our valuation should come in about the same so I don’t think we’ll have to make any change in the levy,” said Irwin.

Three mandatory policy updates had been previously sent to board members.

The first requires the district to make information available to district patrons and the public, “in the modality of the disabled person.”

Due to newly enacted statutes, districts must identify at- risk students and screen for dyslexia as well as provide appropriate teacher training.

All three policies were approved.

“This is the calmest time since I’ve been superintendent in terms of summer projects,” said Irwin. “We’re stripping and rewaxing the floors and an electronics company will install a better public address and sound system in the gym.”

Asked about the number of students out for football, Irwin turned to board member Jarod Lamb who said, “We’ve got nine boys out for football; right now they’re in weights.”

Asked about future projects the superintendent quickly identified one need.

“We’ve got to start replacing the heating and air units in the rooms on a rotating basis otherwise, one day; we’ll have a huge bill we can’t handle.”

They are about $1,800 apiece and except for a few which have recently been replaced, they date to 1991. The superintendent figures the new ones will last more on the order of 10-15 years.

“I put a lot money into O and M (operations and maintenance) this year so we’re gonna start replacing at least two a year beginning this school year,” said Irwin. “I’m gonna have the contractor we work with come in and identify the condition of each and which ones we need to replace first.”