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Canfield safety committee promotes communication with students
By AMANDA TONOLI
CANFIELD
The Canfield community is pulling together to promote school safety.
Canfield schools’ safety committee hosted its first meeting in the board of education building.
Superintendent Alex Geordan welcomed all members of the community to attend.
The safety committee is made up of public safety officials, parents and members of the school district.
Police Chief Chuck Colucci said he was excited to be on the committee to share his knowledge and to educate others.
Goals for the committee were discussed.
“I think the goal of the committee is to keep kids safe, the school environment safe and the community aware of possible threats the school may have,” Colucci said.
Geordan presented a time line of changes both for technology and safety and security procedures over the past four years and discussed the crisis response team put in place for emergencies. The team is made of up school, city and county employees.
“If there is a crisis in Canfield schools or even the city itself, we are involved, no matter what. We are still affected; we’ve got kids here,” Geordan said.
Colucci and Geordan are working together on obtaining a Safe Routes to Schools grant, which assists in making school environments safer for students. The grant would be used to enhance and increase the number of sidewalks surrounding Canfield schools.
Communication is another way to help keep students safe, Geordan said.
“Sometimes students just want to be heard,” he said. “We have principals who make home visits. They check up on students and try to see what the problem might be.”
In addition, Geordan set up office hours welcoming anyone to come in and talk to him about any concerns they have. His hours are 4 to 6 p.m. on school board meeting days.
The superintendent said a main focus of the committee is to ask the community and schools to work together to maintain the safe environment Canfield is known for and to keep students safe.