CSBA president addresses Senate Education Committee on school safety

With school safety and security high on the public agenda following recent events, CSBA President Kathy Kinley testified at an informational hearing of the state Senate Education Committee May 2.

Kinley assured the panel that K-12 schools have many programs to prevent school violence, counsel students and deal with those incidents that do occur. She urged lawmakers to consider making additional resources more widely available.

“We do have many things in place already,” Kinley said, including annual comprehensive safety plans for each school site as required by the state Education Code following the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. She also cited the state’s school safety block grants, which help fund local prevention programs, conflict resolution, staff training, cooperative arrangements with law enforcement and other effective measures.

“Unfortunately with these grants, they’re competitive, and so there are many, many schools that could use this,” Kinley said, but not all schools get the funding—and for those that do, the funding lapses after a few years. Kinley urged the state to extend adequate and stable funding for prevention and security programs, and she underscored other speakers’ call for other agencies and the larger community to share responsibility for school safety.

“For [children] to be really successful, they need five caring adults in their lives,” Kinley said, noting that those adults need to be in the students’ homes, schools and other elements of society.

Other members of the K-12 panel who addressed the Senate Education Committee were Sandy Clifton Bacon, a former president of the Association of California School Administrators, and Anthony Monreal, deputy superintendent of public instruction on the state Department of Education. Responding to their testimony, committee members agreed that schools need help and adequate resources to prevent violence and protecting children.

“I’m sympathetic to schools,” said committee chair Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena. “We cannot simply continue to burden the public schools with all the responsibility.”

State and national resources

• State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell was away at another conference, but he has also joined in the local, state and national focus on school safety and security issues following the April 16 killing of 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va. A letter O’Connell sent to administrators outlining responsibilities and resources is posted on the state Department of Education Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/el/le/yr07ltr0419.asp
• U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is gathering public comment on school safety needs and has provided links to federal resources at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/dialogue.html