S.A.F.E.: The word’s been in the buzz since its initial presentation via e-mail in Ranger Time some four weeks ago, but there’s been little enough talk about it from neither S.A.F.E. TEAM coordinators (As the official website gives them: Wade Sanchez, Melina Berduo, Becky Page and Jeremy Billeaud )nor wide-circulation dispatch since the announcement of the program, which begs the questions:
What is the S.A.F.E. TEAM, and what changes will take place with its implementation?
The TEAM’s official website states its mission as, “to provide an opportunity for our staff, families and community to partner together for success and increase… Personal Responsibility, Safety and Education.”
Just how the program is to accomplish this is still a little vague at this time, but the gist of the program is thus:
The S.A.F.E. TEAM is to be composed of adults from the families of enrolled students who volunteer to patrol the campus during portions of the school day in order to,”[help] create a safer, more secure environment.”
Though available sources are short on specifics, those the website offers all seem to be roles already actively fulfilled by teachers and other staff, for instance:
“S.A.F.E Zone – welcoming guests, supporting the front office or faculty, and working with small groups of students near the Main Entrance
S.A.F.E. Walks – providing a visible presence in the hallways, parking lots and campus perimeter
S.A.F.E Times – being actively involved with students, one-to-one or in small groups, while inside grade-level, elective and special activity classrooms”
The ‘S.A.F.E. Zone’ initiative seems a great deal like duties already performed by our director of first impressions Emily Skipper and the staff of students who work as teacher and administrative aides during off periods—duties such as welcoming guests and supporting the faculty, and as for S.A.F.E. Zone volunteers working with small groups of students, that raises more questions than answers.
‘S.A.F.E. Walks’ appear to be a sort of self-explanatory hall-monitoring program. The question here isn’t one of premise, but one of function: What sort of authority will these adults have over students? Will they write referrals or detentions for students skipping class? Will they have the power to take up electronic devices? Or will they merely be able to alert a staff member with the authority to do so?
Most confusing is the concept of ‘S.A.F.E. Times’—what purpose would an adult without a teaching certificate serve inside the classroom? To keep unruly students in line or assist teachers with menial tasks such as passing out papers? Though the website does not state what role the volunteers would fill, there are several photographs of students and S.A.F.E. TEAM volunteers conversing one-on-one while class appears still to be in session.
The unanswered questions about this program are not a matter of possibility, but of utility. What roles could these volunteers fill on campus that faculty and staff are incapable of?
In considering the answer to that question, allow me to pose another: Why would a radical, change-effecting program like this be proposed for implementation more than half way through the school year? Why not at the beginning of a school year, when such a transition could be more easily accomplished? Something has to have made such a rapid change a necessity, to have made unpaid volunteers fulfilling faculty and staff roles a necessity.
For those of you unfamiliar with the current problems plaguing our educational system, the most pressing and immediate is the State of Texas’ 27 billion dollar budget shortfall. Bear in mind that 44% of all spending in Texas is on education, and in the words of superintendent Dr. Bret Champion in his Jan. 11 ‘Straight Talk’ newsletter, “There is no way around the fact that 86 percent Leander ISD’s budget is people: the salaries and benefits of the talented folks doing great work in the district.”
Given the economic climate and its relation to faculty and staff and the rapid advancement of the S.A.F.E. program, it is not unfair to say S.A.F.E. may be necessary just to cope with the increased workload of the (potentially diminished) teachers and staff after the budget cuts in April or May of this year.
In principle, S.A.F.E. is a brilliant program which may soon become sadly necessary to ensure normalcy on campus, but the lack of information which has been provided for it has certainly been unsettling, namely the function and authority of the program’s volunteers. If more hard, unassailable fact were to be provided about the program, positive response to and popular opinion of the program would undoubtedly increase, making the changing of the guard all that much easier.
