SCHOOLS FLAGGED
On Friday, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office compiled a list of 145 schools in Ohio and 16 in the Miami Valley that did not have a school safety plan and floor plan on file with the state, as required by Ohio law. These plans and blueprints are designed to help first responders in the event of an emergency. As of Tuesday, that number was down to 105 statewide and 11 regionally. An investigation led to a further paring to these seven local schools:
Montgomery County Juvenile Court Detention, Dayton
Greater Ohio Visual School, Lebanon
Miamisburg Secondary Academy, Miamisburg
Creative World of Montessori, Miamisburg
Center for Adolescent Services, New Lebanon
Piqua Seventh-Day Adventist, Piqua
Catholic Central Elementary, Springfield
Seven local schools have not complied with a state law that requires them to file safety plans and school blueprints with the attorney general’s office, despite a reminder issued after 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“After the shooting that occurred earlier this year in Chardon, and several times since, I urged schools around Ohio who had not yet filed school safety plans to do so,” Attorney General Mike DeWine said Friday. “These plans are critical for first responders to respond to incidents at school facilities.”
Ohio Revised Code requires the board of education of each city, exempted village, and local school district and the governing authority of each chartered nonpublic school to file a comprehensive school safety plan and floor plan for each school building under the board’s or governing authority’s control.
This information, once filed with the attorney general’s office, will be made electronically available to law enforcement personnel in the event of an emergency. Schools must file every three years.
DeWine’s office issued a list Friday of 145 schools — out of a possible 4,483 — in Ohio and 16 in the Miami Valley that had yet to file their safety plans with the state.
By Tuesday, that number of noncompliant schools was down to 105 — including 11 local schools. That list was further trimmed to seven area schools, per a Dayton Daily News investigation.
The local schools listed as noncompliant, five of them nonpublic and two community schools, reported having safety plans in place at their schools, many for years. Schools cited various oversights for their lack of filing with the state.
“We received one (initial) letter from DeWine on the first of November; there was never any follow up,” said Jeff Lewis, interim principal of the Dayton Regional STEM School in Kettering. “It took us time to get our ducks in a row.”
The Dayton Regional STEM School was on the noncompliant list Friday, and has since filed its safety plans with the state.
Lewis said the Kettering facility was reconfigured in August and will reconfigure again this summer, which factored into the filing delay. The school opened in 2009 for ninth-graders and has expanded each year since to add more grades. This year the school serves sixth through 12th grade.
There were nine Cincinnati Archdiocese schools on the list Friday, and just three on Tuesday.
“Dr. Jim Rigg, our superintendent of schools, contacted every school on that list Monday,” said Dan Andriacco, Cincinnati Archdiocese spokesman. “Each said they had (safety) plans, and (Rigg) said each must file by 5 p.m. Monday.”
Those schools included Catholic Central Elementary in Springfield and Our Lady of Rosary School in Dayton. The attorney general had received Our Lady of Rosary’s filing Monday, but Catholic Central said it mailed its plan in and therefore was still officially listed as noncompliant Tuesday.
Andriacco said schools were motivated by the attorney general’s reminder, rather than the events in Newtown.
“We would have done the same thing if there had not been the tragedy in Connecticut,” he said. “We expect our schools to follow the law. We don’t require the schools to file their plans with us, so we didn’t know they hadn’t filed.”
The Montgomery County Juvenile Court Detention School in Dayton and the Center for Adolescent Services in New Lebanon also made the noncompliant list, and both operate under the county court.
The detention center is in a secured facility, with an x-ray machine, metal detector and safety plan.
“But it sounds like legally that we have to file a specific safety plan for the school, so we are preparing a safety plan,” court administrator Jim Cole said. “I think we’re in pretty good shape, but we want to follow the state (guidelines).”
Miamisburg Secondary Academy officials said the school follows the same safety plan as its sponsor, Miamisburg City School District, and therefore had not filed a separate safety plan with the state.
“We use a total of three classrooms during the day and practice drills with the district,” said Principal Greg Whitehead, the former Miamisburg superintendent. “We’ll definitely look into that separate filing.”
Seventh-Day Adventist School Principal Mark Mirek said his Piqua school was in the process of filing with the state Tuesday.
“We have lockdown drills, and have had safety plans in place for years,” he said.
Xenia Christian Elementary and High schools, The Goddard School in South Lebanon and the West Carrollton Secondary Academy remained on the list Tuesday — but those listings appear to have been in error.
Bob Elliot, president and CEO of Dayton Christian Schools which oversees Xenia Christan Schools, had a letter of compliance in hand from the month before while speaking to the press Tuesday.
“I am confident that we’ve done everything we are supposed to do,” Elliott said. “But we are resubmitting (our plans) as we speak to their office.”
Elliott added that the Xenia campus was finishing its installation of $50,000 in safety measures, as had been completed at the Dayton campus this year.
On Monday, DeWine released a set of safety plan submission guidelines for schools. That list can be found at www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov.
“I would encourage schools to take a look at these guidelines as they formulate and update their plans,” said Kenneth R. Hinkle, a member of the Attorney General’s School Safety Task Force and president of the Ohio Chiefs of Police. “The information they provide can be lifesaving.”
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