IN Fox Chapel Area Spring 2019 | Page 16

Fox Chapel Area School Board member Eric Schmidt reviewed a Raptor manual with Joe Kozarian, the district’s school safety and security coordinator. SECURITY UPGRADES CONTINUE AT FCASD T Ruvna he Ruvna crisis communication tool is now in place in the Fox Chapel Area School District. A replacement for paper and clipboard rosters, Ruvna allows teachers to account for students in the event of a drill or actual emergency, facilitates faculty interaction, and dispatches help immediately to students or staff members who require assistance. It also provides messaging capability and allows faculty and staff members to access resources such as the district’s safety plan and floor plans of the district’s buildings. Ruvna works in conjunction with Fox Chapel Area’s student information system to enable staff members to account for each and every student. “We’re grateful that with $25,000 in grant support from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, we were able to purchase Ruvna to help us more easily ensure the safety of Fox Chapel Area students and staff during drills and emergencies,” said Megan Collett, Ed.D., the district’s executive director of instructional and innovative leadership. “From a technology perspective, the app allows seamless communication within our administration, faculty, and local law enforcement agencies.” SAFETY CONFERENCE The Fox Chapel Area School District will host a daylong safety conference on August 15, 2019. The speaker will be Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who will present a talk titled “Safe Schools and Healthy Students.” Grossman is one of the nation’s leading trainers for military, law enforcement, mental health providers, and school safety organizations. He is a former U.S. Army ranger and taught psychology at West Point. For more information on the event, please visit the district’s website at www.fcasd.edu. Raptor The Raptor Visitor Management system continues to be in place at all six buildings in the district. In addition to offering instant sex offender screenings, checking school visitors against databases for custody alerts and banned visitors, and keeping accurate records for every visitor who enters a school, the district’s clearances for volunteers now are being run through the Raptor system. 14 FOX CHAPEL AREA According to Joe Kozarian, school safety and security coordinator, nearly 3,700 visitors and volunteers have been scanned through the district’s Raptor system since January 2, 2019. Additionally, Fox Chapel Area school volunteers registered more than 1,600 hours during the month of February.