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Baldwin County School District plans to hire safety director

Superintendent Noris Price says she and the district saw that this job was needed, especially after the mass shooting that happened in Uvalde, Texas.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Baldwin County Schools' Superintendent Noris Price says they're looking to hire a part-time school safety director.

13WMAZ’s Jessica Cha visited one of the schools to tell us what the new director would do and how educators feel about it.

"We determined that we need somebody totally devoted to school safety,” Superintendent Price says. 

Well, what does a school safety director do? Price breaks that down for us.

"This position is to focus on school safety and look at all of our safety measures, make recommendations for new safety measures, but also work with law enforcement and EMS folks to make sure that we have a comprehensive plan in place so that if we have a catastrophic event, we are able to respond, and respond appropriately,” she explains. 

Price says she and the district saw that this job was needed, especially after the mass shooting that happened in Uvalde, Texas.

"It was devastating -- heartbreaking that you had so many lives lost. It's something that you never, ever want to happen in your school district. Nothing is foolproof and we know that, but we're going to do everything in our power to prevent it.”.

Price says the district has been doing a good job with their safety procedures so far. She says they have precautions like a two-door security check that visitors must go through before entering the school. She says that they train staff and educators to also never leave a door propped open, and have classroom doors locked at all times. 

Other safety procedures have been in the works. 

"We have a crisis alert system, so if there is any type of emergency, our teachers are able to press a button and we also get that in the main office where we have a panel that's able to show us exactly what's going on in that classroom because we also have cameras in the classroom,” Price explains. 

Moleshia Little is in her third year of teaching kindergarten. 

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since the fourth grade and I’ve made my dreams come true. I teach kindergarten because I can reach them first and build them for success,” Little says.

She says the news from Uvalde hits close to home.

"I think with this position, it'll be a great opportunity for us to kind of scale back and figure out what we have to do to make sure something like that doesn't happen here in Baldwin County,” she says. “So it does mean a lot that they're taking the time out to try to figure out whether it's in the budget, or whether it's in grants or another initiative to how we can better the safety of ourselves and our students.”

The district says they'll post the director's position next week. Price says that they’re looking for someone with around 10 years of experience in law enforcement, to have leadership skills, and to have some exposure to working with children and youths. 

They said the pay depends on the level of experience of the applicant.

Price says they got the idea for this new job from the Dublin, Clarke County, and the metro area school districts. 

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