Edwardsville District 7 school safety priorities debate | #schoolsaftey #kids #parents #children

The Edwardsville District 7 school board is setting new priorities for the 2026-27 school year as early discussions reveal a divide over how the district should approach student safety.

At a special April 20 work session, interim Superintendent Allen Duncan and the Edwardsville District 7 Board of Education outlined five areas of focus: curriculum, staff accountability, safety, communication and finance. Specifics are expected later.

“The value of having a strategic plan is annually coming back and seeing if it still makes sense,” President Bob Paty said. “Because you don’t want to be so married to a five-year plan when all of the sudden, hey, guess what? We now have AI has completely changed how we need to be thinking about things.”

The discussion then turned to the third goal, which focuses on maintaining a safe, equitable and inclusive environment for all members of the school community. Board members diverged on what that priority should emphasize.

Board Secretary Matt Breihan raised concerns about physical safety in schools, citing gaps in preparedness and training that he said he recognized because of his law enforcement background. Safety manuals are missing or not readily accessible, leaving staff uncertain about basic procedures such as exit routes and designated shelter areas during emergencies.

“In my experience, we’ve always played catch up when it comes to school safety,” Breihan said.

He said many people do not know where to go or how to respond in a crisis. The issue is compounded by inconsistent training, particularly among newly hired staff who may not be familiar with current safety systems or protocols. Breihan noted there is no clear plan to ensure all employees are properly trained, creating potential risks in emergency situations.

“It’s always been a reactionary measure,” Breihan said.

During the meeting, he broke with several board members on Goal 3, school safety, pointing to how long it took the district to complete secure entry vestibules at school buildings, a project discussed as early as 2012 but not finished until funding became available years later. He cited that timeline as an example of how critical safety improvements can be delayed.

He emphasized the importance of routine drills, including less conventional scenarios such as exercises during lunch periods. He pointed to a bomb threat at the high school that exposed gaps in preparedness, including confusion during a mass evacuation and no clear plan for securing the relocation site.

He said those experiences underscore the need for ongoing practice, planning and communication to ensure staff and students know how to respond in emergencies. He expressed frustration that attention to school safety tends to surge only after high-profile incidents and then decline over time.

“It’s like security’s a fad,” Breihan said. “Safety is a fad.”

“I want to make sure that we always have that way that we’re looking forward to make our school safer,” Breihan said.

Other board members emphasized students’ mental and emotional safety, arguing that the discussion should focus not only on the physical security measures Breihan raised but also on student well-being.

“We can’t have one without the other,” Paty said. “If we don’t have a place where students feel safe just in general, we can’t focus on the detail of space.”

The discussion comes after the district reported several years of improvement in students’ sense of belonging through the Panorama Education platform, adopted in 2022, which collects data from a student assessment sent out three times a year.

“The reason I bring this up is because we did really poorly on the belonging, which assessment,” board member Lynn Sanderson said.

She advocated for including mental and emotional well-being as a safety priority.

“You’re not safe if you don’t feel like you belong,” Sanderson said.

The discussion follows key physical upgrades to school buildings, including secure entry vestibules completed across the district, as well as a recent emergency preparedness drill at the central office.

The district will focus on tightening internal systems by clarifying procedures, improving how protocols are communicated to staff and ensuring expectations are consistent across buildings.

That likely would include more structured training, clearer guidance on emergency responses and an emphasis on ensuring staff members understand and can follow established procedures.

“What I imagine is for the physical safety, kind of tightening up our systems, being very clear and the not only with our communicate our systems, but the process procedures,” Duncan said.

However, none of these steps are finalized. The discussion reflects what board members want to see happen, but specific plans and timelines still must be developed and approved.

Additional priorities include improving communication and transparency with the public, particularly by making information easier to access, and strengthening long-term financial and facility planning to avoid unexpected costs. District leaders are expected to develop detailed action plans and present them at a future board retreat for further review.