Dear CCS Families,
My two top priorities as superintendent of Clarkston Community Schools are providing our students with a stellar education and ensuring they are always safe. These are two substantial and ever-changing tasks. Thankfully, I have an outstanding team of experts working to achieve these goals every day.
While we received a favorable report from our safety and security review last year, we know the work is never done. Clarkston’s safety committee meets regularly to analyze our current practices and procedures, grounds, buildings, and equipment. The team also reviews best practices from schools nationwide to determine what safety enhancements could benefit our school community.
As our efforts continue, I would like to give all our parents and community a brief update on recent safety projects and implementations:
• Substitute Teacher Safety Plans specific to each building are presented to guest teachers to ensure they know our procedures and best practices in case of an emergency.
• Each building will receive an emergency response trauma bag that includes a trauma kit with first aid supplies and emergency diagnostic tools.
• We are working to increase the number of walkie-talkies in our buildings for more efficient communication between staff and buildings.
• Our Board of Education passed the SMART Gun Storage resolution in November 2022, which promotes the importance of safe gun storage of firearms in the home.
• We continue to ensure all support staff, including social workers, counselors, and administrators, are trained in CSTAG (Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines).
• We are adding a new general education social worker position at the high school.
• New building maps are in production for each of our schools. These updated maps will be posted in our buildings and shared with local law enforcement and emergency services.
• We continue to have a strong relationship with our three School Resource Offices and work closely with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office substations.
• We have recently increased our monitoring services with Gaggle. This program monitors our student’s Google Suite activity and immediately alerts district administration or emergency responders based on the level of concern. I’d like to personally thank Lt. Rich Cummins with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office/ Clarkston-Independence Substation for offering to take the lead on overnight and weekend alerts.
These are just a few of the additions over the past several months.
If you are interested in reviewing past safety communications with details regarding staff training, Nightlock, and more, please read the following articles:
• From the Superintendent: Next Steps in School Safety
• From the Superintendent: Safety Review and Staff Training
Ensuring the safety of our students and staff will always be at the forefront of everything we do at CCS, and I appreciate your support.
Sincerely,
Dr. Shawn Ryan