School+Safety

Welcome to School Safety! =**__ Sept 6, 2012 __**=
 * __ Just a few highlights: __**
 * ** Due to the incorporation of DASA, there will be a checklist for bias related categories **
 * ** If a bias classification is selected there will be a quick link to the chancellor’s regs & a guide for handling the incident **
 * ** If after the investigation it is determined that there was no bias, make sure that the description in the update is __very__ specific **
 * ** The N21 classification is for Adult Education Students – this is for District 79 only (page 4) **
 * ** New locations have been added: private bus, car service, & permit location (CBO) **
 * ** For incidents in which the BSD needs to be notified, there is now a check-off to verify the notification of the Borough Safety Director – __this is not in lieu of contacting the BSD, but in addition to contacting the BSD__ **
 * ** There is an update to the SOHO Gateway (Page 6) **
 * ** Suicidal ideation reports will now be unlocked & can be updated for the 10 day follow-up **
 * ** Suicidal ideations can now be entered for staff members **

March 15, 2012 1) **//The Front Desk//** – Teachers are sending students to get passes for being late to class to the front desk. The front desk is only for late to school and not for late to class. Students that are late to school get late passes in the cafeteria during periods one and two. Starting period three a student that is late to school will obtain his/her late pass at the front desk. Teachers should not send students for late passes. If a student is late to school and they come to class without a pass, they should remain in class and the teacher reports the student to the dean. The dean will address the attendance with the attendance office and speak with the student about following proper procedures. Mr. Faraci will discuss the late pass procedure at the next UFT meeting. Mr. Bolan will address this concern in the next weekly bulletin. 2) **//Review of Cohort of Students that are not going to class//** - We have seen a reduction from this cohort of students for repeatedly roaming the halls. The initial use of hall sweeps helped reduce the number of students in the halls. Several students from this cohort are on suspension. We should continue with increased hall sweeps. The only days that appear to be challenged with students in the halls are when we have too many substitute teachers in the building. It was suggested that we should not announce on the PA when a dean or a teacher is absent. 3) **//Student Dismissal//** -We have had an increase in the number of non 217 students showing up at dismissal. There is a concern that some of these individual may be gang members. Level 3 would like an increase in administrative presence at dismissal. We should also consider having a workshop for parents to raise awareness of gang activity. 4) **//Dress Code –//** There has been an increase in the number of students that are wearing their hats in the building and wearing their pants very low. Some of these students have responded disrespectfully to teachers that are addressing their lack of compliance with the dress code. Deans will speak about this concern at the upcoming assemblies. 5) **//School Safety Agents in T- Building//** –There is an increase in the number of students hanging out in the T-Building. Level 3 stated that we would have an agent posted permanently in the T- building. 6) **//Miscellaneous Concerns –//** We need to schedule re-training for CPR and first-aid. We will schedule training after testing. Bathrooms are being left opened. Deans and school safety will check to see that bathrooms are locked. We need an increase of presence of school safety in stairwell five. Level 3 will review safety agent’s schedule. Attendees: Mr. Faraci, Mr. Bolan, Mr. Greggo, Mr. Golden, Agent Yip, Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Schreier, Ms. Baxter, Ms. Alli, Ms. Martin and Mr. Gibbons.  School Safety Minutes    February 15, 2012

Hall Sweeps – On Monday, February 13, 2012, Mr. Burns held an open meeting in the Teacher’s Center to address students in the halls. The Deans and School Safety have identified 15 students as regularly roaming the halls and cutting classes. School Safety agents have been keeping a log of all students found in the halls for the past three weeks. The students listed as ‘chronically in the halls’, if they are in the halls without a hall pass, they will be sent to a classroom for the remainder of the school day. Their teachers will be notified and work will be sent to the classroom for them to complete. As an additional consequence it was suggested that any student from this cohort that spends the day in the classroom will not be permitted to attend any of the After-School programs, such as St. John’s or Queens Community House. The staff members present were in agreement that the increase in hall sweeps has helped reduce the number of students in the halls. It was suggested that we reduce the use of the PA system announcing the end of a hall sweep. A second announcement ending the sweep may not be necessary. It was also suggested that we conduct hall sweeps without any announcements. These suggestions will be reviewed by administration and a response will be issued in the upcoming weekly. In other items, there are a growing number of students receiving passes from substitute teachers stating that the student did not eat lunch. These students are coming to the cafeteria during periods 7 and 8 to eat. The deans will address this concern at the next house assembly. The cafeteria staff will inform the dean of any student requesting a late lunch. The issue of where students eat their snack during After-School was discussed. Mr. Bolan will speak to all After-School Program leaders about where students are eating their snacks. If a program can not limit students from eating in an assigned location, they will have to distribute and supervise the eating of snacks in the cafeteria. As a follow up from last month’s discussion on the school crossing guard, it was stated that 217 does not have a crossing guard assigned to the school. The agent that we see in the morning is assigned to 117. Our crossing guard retired two years ago. We have not had another one assigned. The crossing guard has been assisting our students that cross the street in front of the school.

// School Safety Minutes // // January 12, 2012 //

__ Aids and Security __ The roles and responsibility of the school aides were reviewed. A description of responsibilities for lunch duty, front desk duty, hall monitoring and first floor bathroom duty were distributed. Aids that accompany students to the hospital will receive compensation time if they are required to stay past their scheduled work time. In addition, if the aid takes a taxi back to school, they must submit a receipt for the taxi ride in order for them to be reimbursed. Three additional aids have been assigned to the cafeteria. __ Review of Hall Sweep __ On days when we have a large number of substitute teachers in the building, we are experiencing too many students in the halls. To reduce this ill effect, more hall sweeps should be enforced. Supervision of afterschool program has improved. We are having fewer complaints from our teachers. Please be reminded that if you have made arrangements to keep your students after school, you should inform the front desk, especially if they are staying past 3:07 pm. __ Miscellaneous Topics Discussed __
 * Front desk needs to be reminded not to send parents into the gymnasium to see the teachers without an appointment. Please be aware of the number of people roaming the building.
 * Code Blue Team is concerned that all members were not aware of the Code Brown meeting. We will use weekly bulletins to inform staff members of future meetings. We should look to schedule additional first aid training for staff and address some of the changes in the first aid procedures.
 * The cross-walk is not being utilized by the crossing guards in the morning. School Safety will speak with the agent to correct this matter.
 * Concern was raised about Emergency Response vehicles getting to school during a fire drill. The street is closed to incoming traffic and thus the traffic backs up, clogging the street and this problem could inhibit emergency response vehicles from arriving to school in a timely manner. A possible solution would be to have the emergency vehicles come to school by going down a one-way street in the opposite direction. Please remember as always the safe exit of our students is our first priority.
 * T-Building would like aid support to lock and unlock the bathrooms during Periods 2 and 7. Aid schedule will be reviewed to see if a change can be made.

**// School Safety Minutes //** **// December 15, 2011 //**

There were two concerns raised regarding the role of school aides. The first issue is when an aide must accompany a student to the hospital at the end of the school day. The concern had several components; the cost of travel, compensation for working past scheduled hours, at what point they are allowed to leave the hospital, can they turn the student over to a hospital social worker, and how should they return to school. These concerns are administrative in nature and Mr. Bolan will discuss them with Mr. Burns and report back at our January meeting. The second concern was the role of the aide stationed at the front desk. School Safety notes that there are too many people hanging out at the beginning and end of the day. The aides are frustrated by the number of personal calls that come to the phone at the front desk. The aides are looking for a defined role when they are station at the front desk. A job description will be written for aides stationed at the front desk. There was a request to have more hall sweeps to address the number of students that are in the halls during the course of the day. This is not an every day challenge. On days when we have a professional development for teachers and their classes are covered with subs, are the days when this is a problem. When we have hall sweeps, we must have meaningful consequences for those that are not in class. The administration and deans will look into this issue. During the open forum, several after-school concerns were raised. The lack of supervision for students and the impact it is having on building conditions. Mr. Bernardin will meet with adults running the after-school program. The other concern was how to manage parents that come to school after the main office is closed and are looking for their children. How can we track students that are staying after school? Administration will address this concern. **// School Safety Minutes //** **// November 9, 2011 //**

The role and responsibilities of School Safety agents were reviewed. Level Three distributed the description and responsibilities for School Safety agents. We will post it on the school WIKI so all staff will be able to review and understand the role of school safety in our building. It is important that teachers only contact the School Safety office for emergency issues and not to address minor behavior concerns. Teachers and staff should review the letter dated 10/14/11 from Mr. Hoffman regarding suspensions and teacher removals. This letter will be posted on the school WIKI under School Safety. In addition, teachers should not send students out of their rooms to get late to class passes, to see the dean, or any other adult, without verifying the appointment first. School Safety will inform administration for teachers that fail to follow these guide lines. We have had several days with full compliance of agents and it has helped in supervising the school building. We have also had a NYPD officer here at the end of most school days. This has supported efforts to have a safe departure for our student body. The concern in the cafeteria have lessoned thanks to the increased support. The new tables have also helped with the overcrowding issue. The tables may not be the correct size. We should look to add more tables and have the old ones repaired/replaced. As we move into the winter months, many believe the challenges of supervising the lunch periods will increase. We should add more teachers and staff with defined roles to each lunch period. The deans will speak to all staff assigned to their period and review responsibilities with them. ** NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ** ** District 28 ** ** The Green Magnet School for Career Exploration ** ROBERT A. VAN WYCK MIDDLE SCHOOL 217 85-05 144th Street Briarwood, New York 11435 Telephone: 718-657-1120 Fax: 718-291-3668 http://28q217.nycdoe.org PATRICK M. BURNS, PRINCIPAL John Greggo, A.P. Edward Bolen A.P. Raeven Askew, I.A.A.P.


 * October 14, 2011**
 * To: All Staff: **


 * Re: Suspensions & Teacher Removals **


 * Teachers: You are responsible for controlling all minor infractions such as: no homework, general class disturbance, throwing paper, minor physical horseplay, not following directions, impolite or minor discourteousness, and no uniform, etc. If any of these persist, a record of phone calls home, copies of letters sent home, and a record of meetings with the guidance counselor should be kept should there be a need for submittal to deans. **


 * Deans: Most __LEVEL 1__ infractions should be handled with detention. All PERSISTANT __LEVEL 2,__ and __LEVEL 3__ infractions submitted for suspension as well as __TEACHER REMOVALS__ must have the following attached: **


 * 1. Copies of letters that have been sent home by the teacher or dean for the disruptive student. **


 * 2. Copies of phone logs that show times dates and results of teacher’s or dean’s phone calls that were made. **


 * 3. Dates of parent-dean conferences. **


 * 4. Record of assistant principal reprimand. **


 * Thank you, **


 * Charles Hoffman **
 * Suspension Coordinator **

**//School Safety Minutes for M.S. 217//** **//Meeting 10/12/2011//**
 * cc: Patrick Burns, Principal **


 * Fire Code/ Fire Inspection**

There were several issues/concerns that were raised as a result of our September Fire inspection. We should only display materials on bulletin boards. We can not have more then 20% of the hallway walls covered with paper. Items can not be hung from the lights, no table cloths (unless one can prove the table cloth is fire proof), a clear path to safety windows (no chairs blocking window), extension cords can only be used temporally, and blocked doorways must be cleared. There was no mention of over crowding in the report. There was some concern about being able to exit via a window. Many windows have metal window guards around them. The metal gratings are not locked. They are clipped and the clips release from the inside. The question was raised as to whether or not the windows open enough to exit in an emergency. **School Population** – Three concerns were raised by the PE Department. * Parents visiting PE classes without an appointment. This disrupts the class and forces a PE teacher to meet with the parent. School Safety does not allow parents into the gym unless they were directed by the main office. The office should call the PE office before sending parents to the gym. * The number of classes that are over the limit - there are 15 classes above 100. One is at 125 students. The overcrowding causes challenges in the gym as well as the boys and girls locker rooms. * There is several health classes that should have a special education teacher assigned to meet the needs of SWD registered in those classes. Classes 732 and 832 are two of the classes in question. On Mondays we have not had the over crowding in the main lobby during the student assemblies. Exiting one group out the side exit and walking around to the café has alleviated the concern. The administration is in the process of hiring additional teachers to address overcrowding in our classes. The new tables for the café should be in soon. This will help with the seating issue during the lunch periods. Article 6 will be implemented starting on 10/17/2011 to help increase supervision in the café. The over riding concern is that because we have a good school safety record we are not getting the support we need. We are still short school safety agents and the fire inspection did not address the over crowding. Some feel it is only a manner of time before we have a major issue. Others are concerned our enrollment will go even higher because of our A rating. Our Next meeting is scheduled for November 9, 2011 in the school’s library at 1:00pm. School Safety Minutes for MS 217 9/21/2011 Meeting **Over crowding in the gymnasium** We have 40 periods during the course of the week and 25 of them are out of compliance in PE. They are over the limit of 50 to 1. This limits the type of activities that can be run safely. There are concerns in both of the locker rooms. In the boy’s locker room, we do not have enough lockers for all students. Teachers are concerned that this could lead to an increase in thefts and students fooling around with other student’s belongings. In addition, it is very difficult to supervise the large number of students in the locker room. Some periods are made up of a large percentage ofELLstudents. The language barrier adds to the potential for a problem. The girl’s locker room is a little better, but it too is over crowded. Teachers believe it is only a manner of time before there is a major incident. It was suggested that we could improve the overcrowding by hiring another health teacher. This would free up the PE teachers to teach more PE and class size could be reduced. We need more teachers and staff in every department. **School Safety Agents** We are not getting any additional agents. We currently have 5 agents and 1 level three agent assigned to our school each day. At best, we have had 3 agents and 1 level three agent on any given day. We do not receive replacements for absent agents. This week we have been missing additional agents. On Tuesday, we had only two agents and no level 3. There are concerns about the deployment of the limited agents. Do we need an agent in the T Building? Teachers feel we have been fortunate that we have not had a major incident. School Safety appreciated the help from our school aides covering the front desk in the morning and at dismissal. The School Safety Office is concerned with teachers calling School Safety to address minor issue. The question was raised that maybe these teachers need a PD on classroom management. It was also suggested that we install a video surveillance system to assist in the monitoring of student movement throughout the course of the day. **Hallway Congestion** There are many bottlenecks of students during the day. Some teachers are keeping all students out of the rooms until the entire class has arrived. Although this practice has some merit, it is causing issues in the halls. Traveling teachers should make arrangements with teachers that they share rooms with to allow students to enter while the traveling teacher is coming to the room. There is a major concern with the large number of students that meet in the main lobby on Mondays for periods 2 thru 5 for assemblies. At any given time we can have over 800 students passing through the lobby between periods. We do not wish to see anyone trampled. **Fire Drills** We have had positive results so far with our 3 fire drills. Teachers are reminded that the need to make sure everyone is out of their classroom and that if they see a blocked stairway they can reroute their students. Teachers should inform administration if they see any issue/concern during a drill. We had a fire inspection today. If any concerns were made in connection to your room, please address and/or correct this ASAP. If your class is missing the exit plan poster, please let Mr. Bolan know via email. The first floor reports that most of their rooms are missing or are in need of an updated poster. UFT is working withMr.Burns to do everything possible to address overcrowding in our building. We all want the same thing for our students and it is clear that we have a great school.