More cameras, enhanced staff training and ongoing community communication efforts are among the safety and security initiatives underway as the 2026-27 school year ramps up in Minooka Community Consolidated School District 201.
William Lipke, District 201’s school safety coordinator, recently outlined the district’s safety and security plan for the new year. He also provided an overview of some of the efforts that took place across all seven schools in the 2025-26 school year.
“A lot has happened – all very positive things,” Lipke, a retired police officer, said as he gave a report to the school boardat a meeting Aug. 17.
As with many districts across the U.S., safety and security have been top-of-mind topics within District 201 as school shootings and other serious incidents have been on the rise in recent decades.
Since joining the district in his role, Lipke said he has been working steadfast to look for deficiencies that had been in place and aspires to enhance District 201’s existing safety and security protocols.
“Our mission is to ensure that our littles get to remain little, get to go to school and focus on the things that they need to focus on, which is learning, and not worry about that big, bad world on the outside,” Lipke said.
One of District 201’s newer safety and security measures includes the installation of audible alarm systems on exterior side doors that would be activated outside of such incidents as fire drills.
“If anyone is utilizing those doors outside of those specific circumstances, we’re going to know about that. It’s going to be an audible alert to let us know, ‘Hey, someone is tampering with doors,’” Lipke said.
For the year ahead, District 201 is doubling down on its safety and security measures in a number of ways. During the summer hiatus, for instance, more than 35 additional cameras were installed at buildings across the district’s footprint.
District 201 officials also are working to enhance staff training — including substitute teachers. To that end, a video was created, Lipke said, to ensure all staff receives the latest updates on protocols within the district.
“As new personnel come into the district, one of the things we saw that we were deficient in when I first came to the district was we weren’t getting to touch these new teachers, faculty and staff until much later,” Lipke said.
Additionally, Lipke said the goal within District 201 is not to undertake any of the safety and security protocols within a vacuum. Communication, he said, has been – and will continue to be – a priority as the new school year ramps up.
“Being as transparent as humanly possible has actually benefited us quite a bit,” Lipke said. “I’ve had more than a handful of parents come up to me this past year … singing the praises of the safety and security plans that we currently have in place and how much they like the transparency.”
At the recent meeting, board President Emily Conquest lauded the work that has been taking place.
“This whole safety and security has really come so far in the last several years,” she said.
Board member Adam Shainberg also praised the work Lipke and other District 201 officials have undertaken in recent years.
“It’s a tough job, and I just think we have such a great team,” Shainberg said. “I give [Lipke] a lot of credit for jumping in and saying, ‘This is great, but we could do this.’ It’s not just monotony. There’s progress.”
