BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Bentonville Schools is working to keep students and teachers safe this school year, and the district helped inform families of their plan to do just that by holding a safety and security forum on Tuesday.
With mass shootings increasing across the nation, the Bentonville School District is cracking down on security.
“Parents were concerned about response from police officers and security measures taken in the school, and so we thought it was really important for parents to get to have conversations with our director of security,” Superintendent Dr. Debbie Jones said.
The Arkansas School Safety Commission recommended that public schools in the state have an armed presence.
“We did get Bentonville to intend to give us two officers next year and we’ll continue to add additional officers as manpower becomes available,” Vera explained.
The district's director of security Steve Vera says the current safety measures have been in place since 2018.
“We have single point entry to all of our schools, all of our doors remained locked, all of our classroom doors remain locked. And so in order to gain access into the building, they have to buzz in using our audio/video buzzing system,” said Vera.
Jones emphasizes that staff throughout the district is now more prepared for active shooter situations.
“We’ve made improvements annually…you know if we look 5 years ago then we didn’t have a single point entry for every school building we do now. And as we add security measures within the school it sometimes comes more inconvenient for guests and parents. But we’ve adapted and learned to be safer,” Jones said.
One Bentonville parent who has two kids attending elementary school says with recent events nationwide, she was eager to hear what the district’s plan was.
“Bentonville schools have served as a model for other schools in the state… that was certainly reassuring. And I was really glad to hear that a lot of the practices that they are implementing in our schools this year are things they’ve been implementing for a long time,” said Allison Hubbard, a Bentonville mom.
After Tuesday night’s meeting, Hubbard says she now has a sense of peace about sending her kids to school.
“Hearing directly from them has given me assurance that they really are taking this seriously and from the money they’re pumping into and manpower they’re putting into it. It’s really a top concern for them,” said Hubbard.
School officials say the legislature has approved $50 million dollars for security, but they haven’t said how they’re going to distribute the funds yet.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com.