What Does Walker's $100M School Safety Plan Mean For Oak Creek?

OAK CREEK, WI — Gov. Scott Walker signed his $100 million School Safety Plan into law Monday morning, which creates a grant program for school districts to enhance school safety resources. Every Wisconsin school is eligible for the grant program.

“Our $100 million School Safety Plan will help ensure that every student, parent, and teacher feels safe at school,” Walker said. “This bill provides important grant funding that will allow districts to invest in safety measures that will help protect against all threats. This will help protect our students and their future.”

You might be wondering what impact this might have for the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District. Oak Creek Patch.com reached out to the district, and Assistant Superintendent Dan Unertl was able to help us shed more light on what might be coming for Oak Creek Franklin.

1) Does your district have an idea on how its going to interact with the new office to affect school safety?

"It's early, and accordingly, OCFJSD hasn't received guidance on this department's procedures--we're sure communication will be forthcoming and are looking forward to any resources or process improvements such an entity may provide. "

2) Does your district have a wish list for improvements that could boost school safety?

"We're interested in additional school resource officer hour allocations and/or pupil services personnel, social-emotional health programming options, universal screener curriculum, and we are exploring additional physical "hardening" practices, like advanced credential screening programs for entry into our facilities, and glass-covering polymers, to name a few."

3) What does your district do particularly well when it comes to school safety?

"We are extraordinarily lucky to work with incredible community partners. The Oak Creek Police Department facilitates all our staff training through the Peaceful Warrior Training Group and the Oak Creek Fire and Rescue Department builds and trains our staff on the use of our trauma resource kits. "

Provisions of Gov. Walker’s School Safety Plan:

• Creates an Office of School Safety within the Wisconsin Department of Justice to work with law enforcement and schools to establish best practices for school safety and provide training opportunities and other relevant resources to schools.
• Provides $100 million to fund a new grant program for security upgrades to school buildings and other eligible costs.
• Mandates reporting for any threats of school violence.
• Allows grant funding to implement Trauma-Informed Care and Adverse Childhood Experiences in Schools.
• Strengthens school safety plan requirements by requiring all schools to consult with local law enforcement and conduct on-site assessments of all pupil occupied areas.

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