GEMA / Homeland Security conducts Safety Assessments at all 32 Coweta Schools

Pictured above – At Elm Street Elementary School, following a safety assessment visit, are, left to right, Coweta Schools Safety Director Ken Kesselring, GEMA Regional Coordinator Kevin Stanfield, Principal Christy Hildebrand, and Newnan Police Officer Jimmy Price, School Resource Officer.

From Coweta County Schools Press Release

All 32 Coweta County schools received comprehensive on-site safety assessments from the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA/HS) over a nine-day period at the end of August.

GEMA/HS Regional Coordinator Kevin Stanfield (GEMA region 6) conducted the site assessments as a part of an offer from the agency to school systems statewide. Coweta County’s school safety plans have been developed through the years with GEMA guidance. 

Stanfield made the offer to school systems throughout his 21-county district at the beginning of the year to conduct onsite inspections.  Superintendent Evan Horton contacted him in March and invited him to survey Coweta’s schools.

“It’s always good to have a new, and well-trained, perspective on our school safety and security measures,” said Horton.  “I value our partnership with GEMA and local law enforcement, and their expertise as we seek to make our schools as safe as they can be.”

 “The purpose of the assessments is to provide schools with individualized guidance on things they can do to be safer environments,” said Coweta Schools Safety Director Ken Kesselring, who accompanied Stanfield on the site visits.

All 32 Coweta schools were visited over a week and a half period, from August 22 through 30. The visits from Stanfield and Kesselring were typically two-hour tours covering hundreds of elements in a comprehensive site assessment guide developed by GEMA.

“School Safety is actually our bread and butter” at GEMA, said Stanfield, who also lives in Coweta County.  “And in these sorts of assessment visits, we are really another set of eyes,” and the assessments can offer teachers and staff a new perspective on safety issues which need to be addressed or enhanced, he said.

Stanfield took principals and system staff through walkthroughs of the entire school campus, following the 11-page site assessment guide. Among the things he looked for were updated and individualized school safety plans, school security measures, training plans and drills, facility maintenance, classroom set-ups, entryways and exits, signage, emergency storm shelter locations, playgrounds, athletic fields, sprinklers, school fencing, traffic patterns, fire extinguisher, first aid and medical response equipment, cyber security, as well as visited with safety staff such as school nurses and school resource officers.

Principals were given the site assessment ahead of the visits so they could begin their own self-assessment “and that allowed them to have conversations with their teachers, their SROs and others in their school” before the visit, Kesselring said.

Stanfield also encouraged principals and staff members to look at their safety and security processes in different light.  “He brought up that we practice fire drills once a month, but he suggested to everyone to change up their routes and their scenarios each time… throw a wrench in the works and make people think and improvise.”

Kesselring noted that GEMA plans have formed the foundation of Coweta Schools’ safety and security planning for 20 years. “Every year we have a checklist that we go through, twice a year, for school evaluations,” and separate local reviews with input from local law enforcement.

 ”It’s important to constantly evaluate the processes that we have in place, and to adapt with the times,” said Kesselring.  “But overall, the assessments made us feel good that schools have resources and well-established plans in place.” 

“We’re eager to take the feedback from this process and put it into practice,” said Horton.

During a safety assessment tour of Poplar Road Elementary School, GEMA Regional Coordinator Kevin Stanfield, center, reviews school security cameras with Poplar Road Principal Lesley Goodwin, left,  and Coweta Schools Safety Director Ken Kesselring, right.

GEMA Regional Coordinator Kevin Stanfield talks with Madras Middle School Principal Lorraine Johnson and Assistant Principal Herb Bettes, during a safety assessment tour of the school.