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f ox c hapel a r ea s chool d is tr ict | s tat e of t he s chools
Proactive Plan to Protect
Students
and Staff
School safety was front and center as a priority in the district. The administration and staff
conducted a communitywide meeting for parents and residents regarding safety in April.
In an effort to ensure safety, the district has implemented the following:
• There is a safety plan that has been approved by the district and endorsed by local police
departments. Staff members have received safety training, and there were safety drills held at
each of the school buildings. Students also participated in age-appropriate safety training.
• School resource offi cers continued to be assigned to the high school and middle school and also
spent time at each of the elementary schools. The Board of School Directors has hired a safety and
security coordinator who will oversee the creation of a school police force. The plan is to hire four
additional police offi cers during the 2018-2019 school year who will cover each of the schools.
The school police force will be under the direction of the new safety and security coordinator and
will work in cooperation with the local municipal police forces in the district. The offi cers will be
armed and will be retired federal agents or state, municipal, or military police offi cers or sheriffs.
• Hartwood Elementary School was upgraded with a new secure vestibule. Each of the six
schools have a locked lobby area where visitors are greeted by a staff member and must sign
in before gaining entrance to the school. The district has also purchased a subscription to the
Raptor visitor system that screens driver’s licenses of visitors for criminal records and this new
protocol will be implemented during the 2019-2020 school year.
• The district established confi dential telephone, email, and website tip lines so that students
and parents can report safety issues.
• The district stresses the importance of relationships related to school safety. Safety nets are in
place for students who may be struggling with social or emotional issues.
• All parent volunteers are required to have clearances.
Language Immersion Program
Demographic trends indicate that in 25 years, English will no longer be the dominate language
in America. Students entering the workforce will have a defi nite advantage if they are fl uent in
a second language in areas such as business, technology, medicine, education, and law. Not
only that, research has shown that children who are bilingual exhibit higher cognitive ability and
executive functioning skills as they mature.
Language immersion programs are beginning to pop up in schools across the country. During
the 2017-2018 school year, Fox Chapel Area School District made the decision to create a Spanish
Immersion pilot program that will be open to 25 incoming fi rst graders selected from all four
elementary schools beginning in the 2019-2020 school year at the new Kerr Elementary School.
The students will spend the majority of their school day listening, speaking, and learning core
subjects in Spanish. The plan is for these students to continue the Spanish Immersion program
throughout elementary school. The program is the fi rst of its kind in Western Pennsylvania.
In preparation for the new program, district staff members have been choosing curriculum in
Spanish that matches Fox Chapel Area’s traditional elementary curriculum, and the students
will be taught by highly-qualifi ed teachers who are fl uent in Spanish. Beginning last spring and
continuing during the 2018-2019 school year, staff members are sharing the message about
the value of young students learning a new language to parents and community members
throughout the district.
FOX CHAPEL AREA
❘
FALL 2018
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