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Support and school safety

I am typing this with only a few days of school left before commencement for the Marshall High School Class of 2018. I have mixed feelings about graduation each year — I am excited about the futures and opportunities our graduates have, yet graduation also means the school buildings and halls will be (relatively) empty of people, so all the excitement that I get to be a small part of during the school day won’t happen for three months. I want to touch briefly on support and school safety.

I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in providing scholarships for our seniors at the Pride in the Tiger Foundation Senior Scholarship Banquet — this includes the many, many people and groups who provide dollars for scholarships that help our students take the next step in their education. It is impressive seeing the number of scholarships given out and the cumulative dollar amount of these scholarships provided by individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations in the community and school district. There are many examples of support that parents, business and community leaders, and community members provide to the students and staff of District 413 — volunteers, field trip chaperones, and guest speakers are common, in addition to such an impressive amount of scholarships. Our district is fortunate to enjoy strong parent and community support, and for that, we are grateful.

As we continue planning for the 2018-2019 school year, an area that we will be focusing even more attention on is the safety of our students, staff, and visitors in our buildings. One of our belief statements from our strategic plan is that we believe in a safe, respectful and trusting learning environment. Although we have many safety measures in place and continue to monitor, evaluate, and add to those measures, we know that in current times, we need to continually work to improve the overall safety of our schools. In partnership with the Marshall Police Department and city of Marshall, we are able to have a School Resource (Police) Officer in the district who spends time at each of our sites. We have comprehensive safety and crisis plans and policies in place, and we annually conduct nearly 10 safety-related drills at each site. And, many of our buildings limit access into the building once the school day has started through locked doors, card access, and camera systems. Although we have several safety precautions and measures in place, we are going to continue to assess the overall safety at each site, review options for improving that, and determine if and how we can implement additional safety measures. All of us play an important part in the safety of our students and staff, and we look forward to ongoing partnerships to keep our schools safe places.

Thank you for taking time to read this and for the support shown for the Marshall Public School District. Go Tigers!

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