Since March 2018, the Wisconsin Department of Justice has invited school districts to apply for its $100 million School Safety Grant to use for implementing physical safety measures, staff training, and other safety tools.

This fall, Sun Prairie Area School District will use a portion of its awarded funds to implement an online school safety and crisis prevention program called the EmployeeSafeSuite from PublicSchoolWORKS.

“The bottom line is we want students, staff, and visitors to be secure,” said Shelley Weiss, the Sun Prairie Area School District Director of Summer School and the lead on the district’s safety initiative. “Our mantra is ‘creating and sustaining a culture of safety and security,’ and PublicSchoolWORKS is a component of that.”

Sun Prairie Area School District’s approximately 1,300 employees will be assigned online courses that will train employees on safety best practices, as well as help the district meet training requirements mandated by federal and state legislation.

For example, to help Sun Prairie Area School District and other districts across the state meet the training requirements mandated by Act 143, PublicSchoolWORKS incorporated the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Trauma-Sensitive Schools training curriculum into its system.

The district will also be able to deploy job-specific training courses to maintenance and grounds employees, custodial staff, secretaries, food handlers, and other staff members. Deploying job-unique training has been something the district was unable to provide employees prior to its relationship with PublicSchoolWORKS due to a lack of content and time.

While training content is an important component of school safety, EmployeeSafe will also provide Sun Prairie Area School District with automatic reporting and documentation capabilities, thus helping eliminate liability for the district and ensure people do not slip through the cracks.

For example, the Staff Training System tracks employees’ completion of training courses and will automatically prompt them to complete their training before the associated deadline.  If an employee does not complete their training before the deadline, key supervisors and administrators will automatically receive a report listing the employees who have not completed training, thus making follow up more targeted.

All training transcripts are stored in the PublicSchoolWORKS system, making it easy to generate reports and prove compliance with training mandates.

While staff training is the first priority for the district, Sun Prairie Area School District is excited to eventually use the other safety modules EmployeeSafe has to offer, including the Staff Accident Management System and the SDS Now! System for chemical safety.

“We are approaching this as a team,” said Weiss. “We are collaborating as a district with our community and PublicSchoolWORKS to align to our strategic plan.”

For more information about how managed training can benefit schools and districts, visit publicschoolworks.com.

About PublicSchoolWORKS

Since 2000, PublicSchoolWORKS safety compliance management solutions have focused on helping schools easily meet ever-changing compliance requirements, improve staff and student safety, cut costs associated with risk, and reduce administrator and staff time and effort. PublicSchoolWORKS is the only, complete K12 safety compliance management program created by and for schools, and is proud to provide districts with award-winning technology and support recognized by North American educators. For more information on how PublicSchoolWORKS can improve district safety programs, contact 1-877-779-6757or sales@publicschoolworks.com.

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