Esparto Unified School District Dr. Christina Goennier, Superintendent*

Each school district has implemented school hardening measures to some degree in addition to those discussed in the 2019-20 Yolo County Grand Jury report. The measures in place at school sites vary and can be improved. While some schools in each district have their sites enclosed or have security cameras, others do not. Fences may not be high enough to prevent students or intruders from jumping over them. In addition, gates at schools are sometimes not closed, locked, or in disrepair. The District partially agrees with this finding. While the District agrees additional hardening measures are needed, all of our school campuses and facilities have security cameras in place. These cameras are regularly inspected to ensure they are in appropriate working order. All campuses have security fencing installed around the campuses. Where the fencing is not high enough security cameras and staff are located to ensure strangers do not have access to the campus. Additionally, in August of 2023, the district worked with RTAC to review all of the school sites and received a Vulnerability Assessment of the school sites. This assessment is being used to implement physical, cyber, and other security measures.

Each school district conducts California Healthy Kids Surveys, while some use additional methods for assessing student mental health. The response rate of students completing such surveys, however, may not be enough to generate reliable conclusions about student mental health. The district partially agrees with this finding. Research states a good response to a survey is 5-30% and an excellent response is 50%. Our responses over time have been over 50% per grade level. In addition, each school site has a mental health clinician and a social-emotional para educator who works with our students and collects additional data on student mental health.

California Education Code mandates that all school districts require visitors to go to a school's office upon arrival and wear identification while on site. At some Yolo County schools, however, the location of the school's office is not clear. Better signage is needed to direct visitors to the office. This is particularly important for schools, such as in the Davis, Winters, and Woodland school districts, where sharing open spaces or parking lots can make clear signage and prevention of intruders from entering school grounds more challenging. Esparto Unified partially agrees with this finding. All of our parking lots and sites have signage directing visitors where they need to enter and that they must sign in before entering campus. We continually walk and review the need for additional signage on an annual basis via our surveys and school safety committee meetings.

Each school district appropriately uses a web-based third-party provider for safety training modules. Annual training related to violent threats, such as active shooter, is not required at this time by the Davis, Esparto, Washington, and Woodland school districts, although Esparto and Woodland plan to add such training at the start of the 2023-24 school year. Ensuring staff are trained in how to respond appropriately to threats of violence would lessen the chances of another tragedy similar to that in Uvalde, Texas. Esparto Unified partially agrees with this finding. Starting in 2022-23 Esparto Unified provided staff training for all school site personnel on active shooter training. In 2023-24 Esparto Unified in partnership with all of our first responders provided an in-person active shooter and first aid training event for all staff members. Additional training will be provided as per the recommendation of our safety committee.

The Esparto and Woodland school districts have assessed the effectiveness of their school safety training through surveys, as recommended by the 2019-20 Yolo County Grand Jury, while the Davis, Washington, and Winters districts have not. Assessing effectiveness based on quantifiable data can provide more accurate guidance for decisions about training. The District agrees with this finding and continues to gather feedback on safety training through the use of annual surveys.

Each school district has contracted with a web-based third-party provider to notify parents of emergencies. The providers report on how many parents or guardians were reached per technology (e.g., email, text, app, or voice/phone). All school districts' providers, except Washington, reach 90% or more of their student's parents or guardians. Ensuring that virtually all parents or guardians can be reached when needed is desirable The District agrees with this finding and continues to work diligently to communicate and accurately record up-to-date contact and emergency contact information for all students. The District strives to increase its connectivity with families and will work to improve from its current overall 97.2% connectivity rate to above that for the 2024-25 school year.

Some high school students in the Davis, Esparto, Winters, and Woodland school districts are allowed to go off-campus during lunch breaks. Should an emergency arise on campus, it is not possible for the schools to know how safe those students are, and the students may not receive timely emergency notifications if their school is on lockdown or evacuated. Esparto Unified partially agrees with the finding of the grand jury regarding the off-campus lunch break for high school students. Our district utilizes a comprehensive communication system called Parent Square, which we have now enabled to instantly notify both students and parents in case of an emergency. This proactive measure will ensure that our students are notified in case of an emergency. In addition, our community members are also able to be a part of our communication via Parent Square. Additionally, we have staff that patrol both on and off campus and carry school walkie-talkies in order to communicate what is happening both on and off campus. Esparto Unified will remain committed to the health and safety of our students both on and off campus. We will review and adjust based on input from our community and first responders.