Safe Schools
To report Safety Issues, please use the link ("Safety Reporting") in the footer below under CONNECT.
The safety and well-being of our children continues to be a top priority in our district. An external safety audit was conducted in 2018 on every campus of Buncombe County Schools. Recommendations to improve safety and security were made to include changes in operations, training, and capital improvements. Buncombe County Schools is currently in the implementation phase of those recommendations. Installing safety window film on all exterior glass has been a low-cost improvement that is now 100% complete. A higher-cost improvement has been moving main office areas in schools that were close to the front entrances further away. This is still an ongoing process. Buncombe County Schools averages front office reconfigurations per year. This improvement offers a more effective screening of visitors to the schools. As of 2024, ten (10) schools have received this key safety improvement. Buncombe Schools was fortunate to receive $6,000,000 from a state safety grant in 2021 that was used in part for the front office reconfiguration project.
Additional uses of safety funding include:
School messaging systems for parent notifications
Biodirectional amplification systems
Property accountability studies
Threat assessment trainings
High school guard houses
School Resource Officers
Mental health support
Administration radios
BCS Safe School Plan - Part B (English) (Revised March 2024)
BCS Safe Schools Plan - Part B (Moldovan)
BCS Safe Schools Plan - Part B (Russian)
BCS Safe Schools Plan - Part B (Spanish)
Revised translations are not available at this time. They will be posted as soon as they are available.
(NIMS) NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
All BCS principals have been trained on the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
NIMS is the first-ever standardized approach to incident management and response. Developed by the Department of Homeland Security and released in March 2004, it establishes a uniform set of processes and procedures that emergency responders at all levels of government will use to conduct response operations.
SAFE SCHOOLS TASK FORCE
In early January, in response to the Sandy Hook tragedy, Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan and Superintendent Baldwin formed a Safe Schools task force to:
evaluate our current safe schools plans and procedures,
evaluate the best practices of other school district's,
review the current resources within the school system, the sheriff's office, and the community, and
make recommendations regarding better use of existing resources or development of any new resources or procedures to improve school safety.
At the April 11, 2013 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Education, the Safe Schools Task force presented their findings and recommendations to the Board, utilizing the PowerPoint presentation below, which contains the results of several surveys including the phone survey responded to by over 5,000 parents and staff, the online version of that same survey (over 1000 responses), and additional online surveys conducted by individual schools.