Hochman Gives Bedford Schools Safety Recommendations

Bedford Central School District Superintendent Jere Hochman gave the school board his recommendations for safety and security at its June 18, according to a video of the discussion.

Hochman told the board that he was accepting the recommendations presented earlier in the month from the district's safety committee but that one or two items would be tweaked. He also said that he had some additions for the list.

The committee, which included district administrators and police from Bedford, Mount Kisco and Pound Ridge, had a lengthy list. Its recommendations include having common visitor protocols for each school, hiring monitors for the district's five elementary schools to serve in a similar role as those on the Fox Lane campus, installing security cameras, and emphasizing the need for staff members to be responsible for their actions, such as keeping doors locked or having designated roles. Other measures recommended from the committee include having staff trained in six response categories, which include fire drills, lockdowns and lockouts, and having an expectation from visitors to have identification.

Hochman's items for recommendation that were not previously mentioned include closing the west entrance driveway near Fox Lane High School during school hours; having mandatory meetings for parents similar to those offered annually for prom; researching the possibility of switching all external school doors in a single format; providing police with a desk at each school; having annual school safety audits; training for staff that is specific to their roles and to use Westchester County's anonymous tipster line for reporting potential crime. 

Entrance changes would include installing secure vestibules at each school and having staff act in greeting roles. Hochman also left open the possibility of having a standalone greeter.

Changes in Bedford Central are also cultural, Hochman explained. This includes staff responsibility changing, educating kids about it being okay to tell if something is wrong and to keep school as it is meant to be.

“School should not feel like it's locked in and like a prison, for a lack of a better analogy. It needs to feel like a school should feel," Hochman said at the meeting.

Because the discussion concerned security, Hochman kept some information vague, such as law enforcement-related protocol implementation.

Hochman's recommendations, along with the committee's, make up the district's response to the December mass shooting at the Sandy Hook School in nearby Newtown, CT, an incident that he described to the board as “being too close to home literally and figuratively for everyone who lives here.”

The intent is to work on recommendations, which include piloting done in the current school year that is winding down, during the 2013-14 school year. After Hochman gave his talk, the school board did not get into a lengthy conversation about the topic, although board President Susan Wollin described the superintendent's report as a “final summation” of a long process.

For the superintendent's full report, click here for the board's meeting video.