By Amira Van Leeuwen
HAYS COUNTY – The Hays CISD Board of Trustees discussed upcoming school safety and security measures during a special meeting on Aug. 4.
In a 7-0 vote, the board approved the purchase of student ID card supplies from Secured Mobility, dba SMART Tag, the addition of three school resource officers (SRO) and a resolution to provide paid sick leave as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The board also approved Jeri Skrocki as the new Head of District Safety and Security. Skrocki began her career with the Hays County Sheriff’s Office in 1989 and has worked in the Hays County Sheriff’s Office in numerous capacities, including managing the SRO program for the county’s school districts and using full-time sheriff’s deputies for school safety. Skrocki is also a certified Mental Health Peace Officer.
Skrocki gave a presentation on new security protocols and procedures. During the presentation, she talked about the district’s reunification plan.
“We’ve already predetermined reunification site locations. We have literally down to how many cones and barricades we need at that site, and we have an interlocal agreement with our sister schools, including transportation and how we’re going to function that,” Skrocki said.
According to Skrocki, the state has also required weekly reports of every single exterior door in every building with student instruction. Skrocki said she’s been working with Deputy Academic Officers, and they’ve got a “process” in place to where they will be looking at that. Skrocki said the weekly reports will be “extremely important” because the Texas Schools and Safety Center will require them to have written documentation to prove that they have done them.
“It’s going to be another burden on our staff, but I feel confident that we can get it down into a workable situation where we don’t tax people as much as we possibly can,” Skrocki said.
The board also discussed cell phones during the school day.
“[Cell phones] cause problems all the time,” Skrocki said.
She added that she thinks it’s time for students to disengage from cell phones and focus on what’s going on inside the classroom.
Although he supports no cell phones during instruction periods, Trustee Byron Severance thinks it will be challenging to enforce. Board Secretary Esperanza Orosco said that as long as they set the expectations and follow through, it will “eventually work itself out.”
“It is a shift in mindset, but based on the safety and the things that we were encountering last year with kids being able to text ‘I’ve got something I need to get rid of,’ ‘Hey so and so is coming to meet me in this bathroom I’ll hand it off to you,’ those types of things were actually occurring, so it’s for the safety of the campus,” said Jesus Gomez, Deputy Academic Officer.
Parent Jodi Gonzalez’s youngest child is going into 6th grade this year and is scared to go to school. Regarding the board’s phone policy, Gonzalez doesn’t see “what the big deal is.”
“Those kids in Uvalde, they had their phones, they got to say goodbye to their parents, they got to call for help,” Gonzalez said. “My son said, ‘Mom, what if someone comes to shoot me and I can’t tell you I love you,’” she said.
Although he does not have a phone right now, Gonzalez said they are working on getting him one because it makes him feel safer.
“If the worst thing happened, I would want my kids to be able to do something,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez also said she worries about kids with special needs. She would like the board to acknowledge that there is a large number of students on 504 accommodation plans. She said many kids need to wear earbuds during class because they cannot focus without them.
“My child, in particular, cannot take a test like the STAAR test without earbuds because he has ADHD,” Gonzalez said.
