State awards RCS $1.9 million to enhance school safety

ROCHESTER/ROCHESTER HILLS/OAKLAND TOWNSHIP — Rochester Community Schools has been awarded $1.9 million in safety grants from the state of Michigan.

RCS Superintendent Robert Shaner — joined by Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, Rochester Police Chief Steve Schettenhelm and Secure Education Consultants CEO Jason Russell — made the announcement during the recent Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce Community Outlook Breakfast.

“Rochester Community Schools is committed to ensuring the safety of our students, staff, family and guests,” Shaner said. “Nothing is more important than the well-being of our school community.”

The state safety grant funds, he explained, can be used for staff training, increased coordination efforts with local law enforcement, safety infrastructure and software, age-appropriate training for students and families on gun ownership, training for school resource officers, and other safety products and services to improve or maintain security in the buildings.

“We remain truly grateful for the state’s efforts to ensure school districts have the resources to continue to keep our students, staff and guests as safe as possible,” Shaner said.

Over the past few years, Shaner said, the district and its safety partners have talked more about school safety than ever before.

“It’s sad we have to do this, but it’s also worth celebrating that we have the community partners to pull together and support, and make sure our schools continue to be places of hope, inspiration and love, and not fear,” he said.

Through recent bond and sinking fund programs, RCS has been able to enhance safety and school security districtwide — a priority outlined in the RCS strategic plan.

Before 2015, Rochester Community Schools had a total of six surveillance cameras across the entire district. Now, the district has more than 1,500 cameras in its schools and buses.

Today, main building entrances across the district have two sets of vestibule doors, along with a door to the office that district officials say provides staff with a better visitor verification system and building lockdown capabilities. Locks that latch from the interior side of the classroom door have been added, and an updated districtwide telephone system, radio, and PA system help ensure proper notification and warning during an emergency. Preschool programs have been integrated into elementary school buildings to ensure the safest learning environment possible.

“There are many other safety enhancements as a result of technology and facility updates, and we are thankful for the community’s commitment and support,” Shaner said.

Since 2018, the district has been working with Secure Education Consultants, which provides safety audits for schools across the state.

“We work with thousands of schools across the country, and I always use Rochester Community Schools as kind of a model to try to determine what they do to prepare, not only within the district, but also with the law enforcement partners and all the other resources that they bring to bear on safety and security,” said Jason Russell, the CEO of Secure Education Consultants. “They are extremely proactive, in terms of making sure kids are safe.”

The district, Shaner noted, meets regularly with liaison officers from the Rochester Police Department and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office to enhance daily operating procedures for student safety and school security.

In December 2022, the district enhanced the school resource officer program in a partnership with the city of Rochester Hills by adding a dedicated, full-time, year-round detective sergeant from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Rochester Police Chief Steve Schettenhelm said the district’s school resource officers are “dedicated men and women that are in the schools every day.”

“They are certainly the backbone to making sure that we ensure safety and security in our schools,” he said. “We certainly understand, with recent events, the importance of the climate of security, and they do provide that.”

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office investigates between one and five school threats a day countywide.

“It’s sad and it’s frustrating,” said Bouchard. “Making a threat is not a joke. It’s a crime. It terrorizes people, it makes them fearful, and it’s not acceptable. We are resolved to make sure we change this environment, some through legislation in Lansing, which I am trying to help, and also through our daily processes.”

In the event that a violent crime does happen at a school within the county, law enforcement personnel in multiple jurisdictions have been pre-trained via the Oakland County Tactical Training Consortium, also known as OakTac, ensuring standardization of communications, training and tactical techniques.

“Over 3,000 police officers have trained here in Oakland County, and they train on one protocol — that if there is an active threat, they are going to go in,” Bouchard said. “There is no waiting, there is no staging, there is no planning for additional resources — if you get there alone, you go in, and if you get there with someone else, you go in together, but you are going in — that was the mandate from the beginning.”

Bouchard said the community needs to talk more to help combat potential acts of violence in schools. Students are always encouraged to talk with a trusted adult if they see, hear or experience something that doesn’t seem right. Community members can also report information using the Talk to RCS feature on the district’s website or anonymously using Michigan’s student safety program, OK2SAY.

“Sharing information is the only way we get ahead of these things,” Bouchard said.