CONWAY, Ark. — The Conway School District, like many others, are prioritizing safety first ahead of this school year.
Superintendent of Conway Public Schools, Jeff Collum said that it's a three-pronged approach for the district. The approach consists of education, action, and partnerships.
"Everything from visitors on campus to how do they respond in a lockdown or an evacuation drill are our worst case scenario, even an active shooter drill," Collum said.
Next in the process are action steps, which highlights what the district's doing that demonstrates that they're taking action this year. Alongside that is safety response is a part of that approach as well.
"One thing practically that we've been working on that we're going to give to all of our staff, it's a safety ID badge that would basically go along with your regular identification badge," he said. "On this badge, you've got procedures for lockdowns, evacuation drills, lockouts, and shelter in place."
The last part of the process for the district's approach consists of partnerships. This is something that Collum emphasized is not just between the district and the city, but a collaborative conversation with everyone.
"So that's parents, students, staff, your city leadership, your school leadership all working together and of course, law enforcement-- are we all on the same page," Collum said.
Following these steps and making sure that safety is a priority is something very important to Collum.
He was the Safe Schools Administrator of the Year back when he was Benton's superintendent. He also knows what a school tragedy looks like all too well unfortunately.
"I was an administrator in Tyler ISD. We had a homicide on a campus and so I was I was called to go in and do some work with school safety and to try to help bring the campus back together. I've spent a lot of my career since that point, doing everything in my power to make sure that our kids will safe," he said.
Collum said he feels confident in the district's efforts as the school year nears.
"This [safety] is the top priority. We want to begin with safety first and then everything else that we do can function well," he said.