The District 87 school board heard a report Wednesday night addressing safety and security concerns, following two incidents at Bloomington schools in recent weeks.
The board also approved funding for an architect and a construction manager at a former State Farm building where the district plans to expand early childhood education.
District 87 Director of Safety and Security Rich Hirsch admitted that following last month’s incidents at Bloomington High School and Stevenson Elementary, “there’s room for improvement, which we noticed.” “I Love U Guys” Foundation Model with a crisis page that is available to teachers, students, and parents, paired with posters will be displayed in every classroom.
At BHS, buildings were temporarily placed on lockdown April 8 over what school officials said turned out to be a false security threat. On May 8, police reported shots fired about three blocks from Stevenson School; no one was injured and there was no threat to the school.
The goal of the "I Love U Guys" model is to create easy-to-understand guidelines and prevent the spread of misinformation during potential security incidents. Currently, 45,000 schools use the same crisis page, posters, and training materials, including schools in McLean County Unit 5.
In particular, Hirsch highlighted concerns about teachers not understanding their roles in the event of an incident. This is why video trainings will be given to every teacher in the district at the beginning of the next school year, and the videos also will be made available for students in each classroom.
“It’s a common language for everybody,” Hirsch said of the new programs.
Additionally, the district wants to emphasize the differences between different sorts of incidents for greater community understanding. This includes using more precise language to describe incidents.
“If there’s a ‘hold’ in the classroom, for example ... What that means is we’re not going to have anybody come in and out because we maybe have an issue we’re dealing with in a hallway,” District 87 Superintendent David Mouser told WGLT.
“Nobody’s in danger” in a hold situation, he added, “but it’s a situation where we might have a medical emergency, for example.”
This is in contrast to the traditional language of lockdowns that are more serious. Hirsch indicated in his presentation that he spoke with a parent who was concerned because a school was on ”lockdown” when it was actually in more of a hold situation.
“Everybody uses the term ‘lockdown,’” Mouser said. “And a lot of times you immediately think, well that means there’s an active shooter, and what we want to do is make it very clear to our community, to our kids and to our teachers what we’re dealing with in any individual situation.”
Mouser also addressed the district’s concerns about misinformation.
“What we want to do is kick out information that’s accurate and timely,” he said, acknowledging the community often wants information immediately about an incident. “And if the information is not timely, we’re not going to put something out just to put a statement out.”
Mouser also emphasized the importance of teachers and students following existing safety procedures around locking doors, for instance, to prevent potential incidents before they have a chance to occur.
State Farm building
In another matter, the board approved funding for an architect and a construction manager at the Oakland Avenue building the district has purchased from State Farm in February.
“We’ll begin the process immediately,” said Mouser, regarding construction work on the building, adding it's possible courses will be offered in the building as early as the fall of 2025.
Mouser, who was given a new three-year contract at Wednesday's meeting, said the main goal with this project is to shorten the waiting list the district currently has for early childhood education programs.
“Really, right now we’re capped,” Mouser admitted. “We cannot serve all the students that want to have that service. And this opportunity opens up that door for all these families in our community to be able to get that service.”
“So absolutely our hope in this project is to be able to serve more kids and families.”
Mouser also spoke briefly with WGLT about the debate happening around dual credit courses in Illinois. Heartland Community College faculty have expressed concerns about the courses being taught by high school teachers instead of college faculty members.
Mouser said that he thinks it’s important for some high school students to have their own teachers as instructors in these courses.
“We see a lot of positive in that because they feel like they can step out, give the college course a shot, and … hopefully be successful,” said Mouser, adding he understands the faculty’s concerns and that more conversations are needed.
