In anticipation of more campus safety mandates from the governor’s office, Ector County ISD is already taking steps to make the district safer.
“The legislature is meeting in January and there are going to be a lot of layers to that and additional things that all school districts are going to have to implement,” Executive Director of District Operations Cortney Smith said.
Exterior doors are already required to be locked and upgraded fencing is another part.
“Intruder resistant film could possibly be another piece that we need to add. We’re actually working with a contractor currently. They’re going around. They started Monday (Dec. 5),” Smith said.
He said they are going to every facility in the district and ECISD is looking at what it would cost to install intruder resistant film at all the front entrances and windows.
“It’s just a film that you put over your windows or glass doors. It’s not bullet resistant, but it’s intruder resistant. They have a couple different types of this film. They have a Tier 1 film that takes intruder with a weapon approximately 2-2 1/2 minutes to enter the facility if the door’s locked and get through that glass,” Smith said.
“Then they have a Tier 2 that takes about 6 1/2 to 7 minutes to get in. We’ve watched videos on it, so we are going to be looking at the Tier 2. … We should be getting a quote on that soon, but again, back to the governor’s mandate if that is something that they are going to require school districts to do we’re going to see if there could be possible funding from the state provided … We just don’t know yet what that’s going to look like until the legislature makes that decision and it comes from the governor’s office and TEA (Texas Education Agency),” he added.
The Tax Ratification Election approved by voters in 2018 helped pay for secured access to buildings and added fencing.
“The public’s been real receptive and I think our principals and leadership have really appreciated that. We thank the community for allowing us to do that by passing the TRE,” Smith said.
One of the elementary schools also requested a vestibule be installed with additional doors so that people couldn’t just walk straight down the hall.
Smith said the district has gotten a proposed list of safety requirements for all districts in Texas.
“The comment period is not open and the rules are not final on that yet. But we do have a list from which we’re starting to work from. There are probably going to be some minor changes to that list, but probably not substantive changes. We’re reviewing that list now, and of course that came from TEA. That does include the intruder resistant film, the six-foot fencing,” he added.
The state is saying that to secure an area, you have to have an unscalable six-foot fence, or an eight-foot fence.
Districts are also required to have all exterior doors locked at all times.
“We implemented that at the first of the school year … Our officers are going around and conducting weekly intruder audits and checks of those exterior doors. Our locksmiths had been super busy getting those doors operable and in good shape and they are … in good shape across,” Smith said.
“The district, with the help of custodians and principals and staff members, is ensuring that those doors stay locked throughout the day anytime instruction is going on on a campus. That is a requirement,” Smith said.
“Additionally during the school day, we were asking that all interior doors be closed and locked as well. Our teachers and staff members are doing an excellent job and principals are doing an excellent job of that,” he added.
They know that because of the weekly safety audits.
The ECISD Board of Trustees recently authorized the ECISD Police Department to hire three new officers to help with the audits and more campus coverage.
Assistant Chief Jeff Daniels said the three officers have been hired and are currently going through the police department’s field training program.
“It frees up existing officers to do the work that they need (to do) and not tying up all their time with those audits,” Smith said.
The police department and operations working together have shored up safety at the district’s facilities, he said.
“It’s super important. … It’s on all of our minds, but we’re on top of it and I think, like I said as a district, we’ve done a great job starting this school year abiding by those TEA mandates and mandates that we’ve put in ourselves,” Smith added.
The average age of buildings in ECISD is 50 years old and those doors have been open and closed hundreds of times in some cases.
“It’s tough to keep those things operable, but our hats off to our maintenance team, our locksmiths, our facilities team and our officers for keeping those operable and secure all across the district,” Smith said.
During holiday breaks, Daniels said most officers are off but they have some that answer alarm calls and work assignments that take place during that period.
In the event of an emergency, Smith said people are instructed to get in touch with him or Facilities Director Gary Weatherford.
“We provide all of our staff members with that 24-hour dispatch number there, so we’re available for sure,” Smith said.
“All of our alarms … are working. Those are required to be set at the end of each day and those are set over the weekend to notify the proper authorities if someone does break in,” he added.
Smith said the district has done as much as it can in-house securing all the exterior doors and requiring all the exterior and interior doors to be locked.
“We’ve done what we can with the budget that we currently have,” he added.
The Frost Building has big roll up doors and they are open because it gets hot in the welding shops.
“When our officers are doing their audits, they’re noticing that that’s wide open to anybody that wants to walk up. So we have secured that area with an eight-foot fence just to … get out ahead of this. … Our operations department and officers are really working together and they’re our boots on the ground to find anything that looks not in compliance, and then they let us know and our team follows behind them to secure those areas the best we can,” Smith said.
He added that he’ll be glad when the requirements are finalized.
“We know exactly where we are and where we’re headed and what we need to do. But again, hats off to our maintenance team, facilities team and our officers for securing this as best we can with the guidance that we’ve received so far,” Smith said.
