Page 3 - School Planning & Management, March 2019

NEWS & VIEWS { FACILITIES | SECURITY | TECHNOLOGY | BUSINESS } Science Center Dedicated
>> The Gerald D. Young Agricultural Sciences facility has received an expansion for the benefit of Katy ISD’s FFA and Agricultural Sciences program and the whole community. With the tremendous growth of Katy ISD in mind, modern structures were created to
allow for evolving student needs and to allow students and teachers to interact outside of the classroom from the school barns to the project center, the eco- pond, show pavilion, and covered rodeo arena. Read more at webspm.com/ articles/2019/02/25/katy-isd.aspx
Ask the Expert
This Month
Student Safety
CAN TECHNOLOGY
CONTRIBUTE TO
SCHOOL SAFETY?
STUDENT SAFETY IS A TOP CONCERN FOR
districts and schools. They want solutions that will help them to support students’ mental health and well being, as well as guard against potential threats. Often the first area of consideration is physical enhancements, such as security cameras and bulletproof glass, which can make a real difference but can inhibit the educational mission. Now many schools are turning to solutions that address student mental health and well-being, which are often at the root of school safety issues, with more extensive use of digital safeguarding.
Digital safeguarding can provide valuable insight into students’ mindsets and can also alert staff if students make—or are discussing— threats of violence to themselves or to others. As the use of mobile technology in the classroom grows, digital safeguarding can be one of the best ways to detect potential safety concerns. Early notification allows schools to investigate and address concerns before they get out of hand.
A recent survey of school counselors found that paper-based record keeping is the most common practice to record information on student well-being and mental health issues. Experience suggests that the era of informal record keeping is being replaced by auditable recording of student safety incidents and the actions taken by schools. Schools can also look for solutions that allow them to integrate, analyze, and store student safety data digitally in order to improve efficiency and inform counseling sessions or other interventions.
Administrators can play an active role in addressing safety through policy, funding, and implementation of digitized safeguarding solutions or other technology that will support counselors, instructors, and staff while also ensuring the privacy of student data.
>>Richard Fuller is CEO of Impero Software (www.imperosoftware.com/us), which provides student safety and device monitoring and management solutions. He can be reached at 844/346-7376 or rfuller@imperosoftware.com.
EdBuild Report Finds White Students Get More K-12 Funding Than Students of Color
School districts where the majority of students enrolled are students
of color receive $23 billion less in education funding than predominantly white school districts, despite serving the same number of students—a dramatic discrepancy that underscores the depth of K-12 funding inequities in
the U.S. The top-line finding included in a new report from EdBuild, a nonprofit that focuses on education funding,
calls into question the ways state and local dollars are used to prop up some children at the expense of others and exposes a similarly startling funding discrepancy even when comparing
poor white and poor nonwhite school districts. To read the report, visit edbuild.org/content/23-billion. SPM
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Coming in May: Facilities & Construction Trends and Their Impact on Learning— To register, go to webspm.com/webcasts/ 2019/02/facilities-construction.aspx
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5 Education Operations Management Trends to Know — webspm.com/ whitepapers/2018/12/operations- management.aspx
Investing In Our Future — webspm.com/ whitepapers/2018/10/ieq.aspx
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[eBook] K12 Renovation & Construction Case Studies — webspm.com/ whitepapers/2018/10/renovation- construction.aspx
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Event Management and the Bottom
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MARCH 2019 / SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT 3