School Safety in the News

Attorney general to announce awards for school safety ideas

School safety: Officer enforces law, not school policy, when walking halls

School-shooting simulation hones safety officers' skills

L.A. Schools Hire Security Aides To Watch For Threats

Customer Highlight: Achieving a Certificate of Recognition with Chinook’s Edge

Earning a Certificate of Recognition (COR) for workplace safety was a major goal for Chinook’s Edge School Division 73 in Alberta, Canada. Meeting the safety standards required for certification would not only significantly reduce injury rates; it would also earn the division premium rebates through the Workers Compensation Board’s (WCB) Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) program.

As the sole Safety Officer for the rural division’s 38 campuses, Linden Lonsberry is tasked with conducting investigations, training or re-training workers, managing safety tasks, making safety recommendations and addressing hazard and near-miss reports. Because of his already full workload, he needed help developing a health and safety program that met the rigorous standards put forth by the WCB.

To accomplish this, Lonsberry used the EmployeeSafe Suite to schedule, manage and sustain his safety program, which includes staff training, incident management, safety tasks (inspections, drills and other tasks) and more. With the help of EmployeeSafe Suite, Lonsberry knew the required training, safety tasks, and responses to accident and near-miss reports had been completed and he was able to easily provide the division’s inspection documents for the auditors’ review.

In order to be eligible for a COR audit, a health and safety program has to consist of the following eight elements:

·         Management, leadership and organizational commitment

·         Hazard identification and assessment

·         Hazard control

·         Ongoing inspections

·         Emergency response

·         Qualification, orientation and training

·         Accident and incident investigation

·         Program administration

“PublicSchoolWORKS helped us meet the COR requirements, with four out of the eight elements being completely automated—making them hands-off for administration,” said Lonsberry.

Receiving the COR has earned the division a 20 percent reduction in WCB premiums – a savings of approximately $43,000 per year. Using the EmployeeSafe Suite, Chinook’s Edge also saw fewer injuries and a reduction in injury-related costs. The division’s WCB claims totaled nearly $250,000 in 2003; they are now approximately $20,000, putting Chinook’s Edge 51.69 percent below the industry average for WCB claims.

To learn more about how Chinooks Edge uses PublicSchoolWORKS, click here. 

Industry News: District Administrations’ Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products Awards Program

District Administration has opened their nomination period for the 2013 Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products Awards! PublicSchoolWORKS has been able to achieve this distinction five years in a row and is aiming for a sixth! And, with your help, we will achieve it!

To nominate either of our suites, go to www.districtadministration.com/top100 to fill out and submit the nomination form by September 1, 2013.

We appreciate your nomination of PublicSchoolWORKS’ award-winning suites to be among the top ed-tech products!

Customer Highlight: Taking the “Knot in My Stomach” Worries Out of Compliance with Montgomery County Educational Service Center

As Montgomery County Educational Service Center’s Director of Human Resources, Beverly Broestl oversees the acquisition of new employees, staff training, teacher licensure, as well as the health and safety the Center’s 330 employees. In addition to all of these responsibilities, Broestl also has to ensure that all of her schools are in compliance with the numerous Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. The required annual reporting associated with OSHA alone could take weeks to compile.

“Compliance was always on my mind,” said Broestl. “We constantly worried about an OSHA visit. We were nervous that they would find something that we missed.”

To ensure complete compliance with the many OSHA requirements, the Center implemented PublicSchoolWORKS’ EmployeeSafe suite to help automate the tracking, management and completion of compliance tasks, staff accident reporting and staff training.

Instead of trying to keep up with the daunting task of managing MSDS binders, , employees  call to talk to chemical specialists or they print MSD sheets straight from EmployeeSafe’s MSDS Now!  online system. In addition, from a training perspective, Broestl and supervisors automatically receive reports letting them know who has not completed their assigned training. And, to help reduce worker’s compensation claims, the system auto-notifies key staff to complete safety tasks and the resulting data helps to implement programs to effectively prevent further injuries and claims.

Using EmployeeSafe, the Center was able to streamline safety, risk management, human resources and other administrative processes, saving valuable time and money.

“PublicSchoolWORKS takes away the knot in your stomach,” said Broestl. “It takes away that worry, day and night, that I am forgetting something. It is peace of mind.”

To learn more about how your district can use the EmployeeSafe Suite to streamline human resources, email sales@publicschoolworks.com.

Industry News: Student Bullying and Safety Reporting Systems named EdTech Digest Awards Winner

PublicSchoolWORKS’ Student Bullying and Safety Reporting Systems were selected as the Cool Tool - Reporting Solution winner in this year’s EdTech Digest Awards Recognition Program.  The Parent InfoCenter was named a finalist in the Cool Tool - Parent/Student Portal Solution category. This awards program, now in its third year, honors tools, trendsetters and leaders in the education and technology trades.

This is the third consecutive year that PublicSchoolWORKS was recognized by the program. In 2012, Steve Temming, president and CEO of PSW, was named a Leadership Award finalist in the program. In 2011, the Student Bullying Reporting System and the EmployeeSafe Staff Training and Compliance Management System were both named Cool Tool Award winners.

To view the full list of 2013 finalists and winners, click here. 

In the News: Student Bus Behavior

Bus drivers are tasked with ensuring students get to and from school safely, in addition to making sure students behave during the trip. To help students better understand what is appropriate bus etiquette, Abbey Ardiana, a student at Montana’s Sentinel High School, decided to create a bus safety instructional video and included in the cast, a bus-full of Franklin Elementary students.  The film is one of six that Ardiana is creating for the Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI), a statewide effort to teach students clear expectations of positive behavior. To learn more about the video and the MBI, click here. 

When bus drivers in the Galion City School District in Galion, OH experienced student behavior issues, they had to write a behavior report and hand-deliver it to the appropriate administrator. The process of filing and investigating the report could take up to three days, meanwhile bus drivers did not know what discipline, if any, the student received.

Once the district started using PublicSchoolWORKS’ Student Behavior Management System, administration knew it would be beneficial to train the bus drivers on how to fill out the online student behavior reports. After the initial training, filling out the form was intuitive. Now when an incident occurs, bus drivers go back to the garage and submit an online behavior report. The system auto-emails administrators to ensure the investigation and resolution start immediately. Bus drivers can now rest easy knowing that administration is addressing student discipline issues in a timely manner. To learn more about how Galion City School District uses PublicSchoolWORKS, click here. 

Customer Spotlight: Using Technology to “Green” Galion City School District Processes

Technology has definitely impacted education. Not only is technology being used to increase student interaction in the classroom, it is being used to decrease paper and ink usage in districts. This not only lowers district spending, but it creates a more eco-friendly approach to district operations.

Galion City School District in Galion, OH has decreased its printing costs and impact on the environment by moving away from traditional communication methods. Instead of sending important documents home with students, parents can access digital versions on the district’s website. Galion has further perpetuated its “green” initiative by switching from traditional paper record-keeping to using PublicSchoolWORKS’ web-based system for addressing staff and student safety initiatives.

By using PublicSchoolWORKS’ StudentWatch system, Galion was able to eliminate the paper associated with student behavior reporting because all reporting is done online. When an incident occurs, employees simply fill out a Student Behavior Referral or a Student Documentation Report. When the report is submitted, the system automatically notifies administrators as appropriate of the incident. The Student Behavior Management System interfaces with Ohio’s statewide student database to automatically input required discipline information without any effort required of Galion.

The district expanded its use of PublicSchoolWORKS to include the EmployeeSafe Suite to manage their entire safety program. The system ensures that drills, inspections and other required safety tasks are completed without burdening administration. Additionally, the training system ensures staff complete mandatory training, freeing up valuable in-service days and eliminating paper training logs. Employees can also report staff accidents and near miss incidents online, ensuring that claims and reports do not get lost in a paper trail and get filed quickly.

Transitioning to a digital approach for district processes has been beneficial for both Galion City Schools and the environment. To learn more about how your district can “go green” with PublicSchoolWORKS, email sales@publicschoolworks.com.