Howard Bultinck is an assistant professor, Educational Leadership and Development, Northeastern Illinois University, a consultant with Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, Ltd., search consultants and the retired superintendent/principal for Sunset Ridge School District 29 in Northfield, Illinois.

The beginning of a new school year is an exciting, albeit challenging and stressful time for everyone. As board members and administrators, you anxiously await the implementation of new and improved programs to make your districts better places in which students can learn. In all the hoopla associated with making your schools the most successful environment for your students, the most important aspect of students' lives must never be forgotten, overlooked or neglected.

As a recently retired superintendent/principal of a small school district, each year started in a very similar manner — optimistic with so many things to accomplish, batteries charged and fully ready to go. For 24 years, the first day of school, and every day for that matter, began with a drive to work when I worried about many things. But all those concerns paled in comparison to the most important one: SAFETY.

Safety was at the top of the list right from the get-go. With so many things to do and so many problems to attend to on the very first day of school, the task of what to do first may have appeared daunting. The irony is — it never was. The seemingly easy choice of a first activity in my grade 4-8 building, other than ensuring everyone was there and, of course, absent a bona fide emergency, was always the same. The routine was reminiscent of the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray.

I walked into all fourth-grade classrooms and gave the same speech, which, ultimately, led to an excellent discussion with all the students. The conversation went like this: Can you tell me the three most important things you will need to know to graduate from Sunset Ridge School?

After the students would struggle with prioritizing a litany of answers, the majority of which were grounded in subject matter mastery, they figured out where I was coming from and what was valued most. The right answer would ultimately always emerge: "Safety, safety and, yes, safety."

Nothing would be more paramount during the course of their education than their safety. The students were always quick studies and learned their lesson well. During the course of the year and in future years, irrespective of their grade level, they would frequently see me in the halls, smile and just say, "Yes, Dr. B., we know, safety, safety, safety."

The critical importance of everyone's safety becomes manifested in the simple act of walking down the halls of one's building and realizing what one has learned to do. As an administrator one learns to stroll a building with a global scan — watching the students and décor but lifting one's head in the air, never from any sense of self-imposed arrogance, self righteousness or import, but only to make sure that all heat and smoke detectors are in place as well as sprinkler systems and that the viable structural components are not in disrepair.

Accidents are awful, but the ones that were preventable become gut wrenching and the nightmares that wake us up in the middle of the night. They haunt us because of the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" factor. They trouble us with the disturbing feelings of loss of life, permanent sustained injuries, loss of valuable work time, loss of consistency and continuity in the classroom, workers compensation claims, lawsuits and the potential that exists for abuse in the system. The time and effort expended to attend to any one of these items can easily suck the life out of us and the joy of being in schools everyday. The old adage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, applies.

So what can you do? How can you create a sustained safety-learning environment that will send a constant and consistent message similar to the one easily learned and retained by my fourth graders on that first day of school? The answer does not rest in a few simple, yet sincere, visits to classrooms, although they are an outstanding beginning, but in a series of ideas, which ensure that the message of safety receives the highest and utmost priority in your schools.

As board members, you can:

• Be ever mindful and conscientious yourself of safety and share any concerns with the appropriate people.
• Ensure that your district's mission statement includes a component that addresses student and adult safety.
• Develop school board policies in multiple sections on topics related to safety, security and accident prevention. Policies such as safety in schools, workers compensation, instruction for children on safety during fire drills, tornado drills, intruder drills, bicycle usage, playgrounds as well as officer friendly programs, field trips, insurance and emergency plans are just a few that can be included. Remember it is the board's responsibility to develop policy. My district subscribed to the Illinois Association of School Board's policy service to be kept up-to-date on policy matters. That service, coupled with the occasional use of legal counsel, served all our policy needs.
• Ask if administrators conduct their own periodic safety walk-through inspections and if they keep a record of those inspections.
• Ensure that your "Emergency Response and Crisis Management Plan" is reviewed and updated annually. Have your buildings had a security and safety audit lately?

Much of what must be done, however, falls to your administration to:

• Develop a comprehensive loss control and prevention program for the district, which includes a curricular framework for students, and programs and workshops for employees. Create a long-range plan that addresses multiple topics and review it annually.
• Create a permanent "Safety in the Workplace" committee that meets regularly to review research and best practices in school safety and acknowledges suggestions and criticisms as opportunities to improve the safety of the schools. Concerns and complaints are good for you. Extract the truth from those complaints and concerns to make your schools safer. You can care all you want, but until everyone else cares too, it won't matter much. Everyone must be safety conscious and become a safety watchdog.
• Use the expertise of insurance companies, security experts and/or outside consultants to remain current on best practices and procedures.
• Consult with local resources, police and fire departments, local village government, knowledgeable community members, etc., to understand what is going on in the community and to coordinate any cooperative programs.
• Treat safety inspections from local, county or state government and hired consultants such as architects as opportunities to learn and become safer, not a check in the box requirement.
• Make sure life safety plans are up-to-date and implementation of projects is on-going and reviewed annually.
• Have employees sign off in writing that they have read district policies on safety, security and risk prevention. The signing requirement would be similar to other policies that require a signature, such as sexual harassment and acceptable use of technology.
• Ensure that any and all documents such as an "accident form" are completed as soon as possible. All forms should be easily accessible (on the Web for example) and possibly personally delivered depending on the situation. Once completed, administrators should act quickly on them — for example by notifying the insurance company if necessary. Have administrators keep a couple of disposable cameras (with flash) in their desk drawer to take pictures. The primary record of an incident will be the one created at the time the incident happens. Instruct employees to discuss the accident with no one without first checking with the appropriate school administrator, and to create and keep their own record of the incident and their response, providing a copy to the appropriate administrator.
• Act on negligence. Administrators must be willing to discipline employees, including completing the appropriate written documentation, who fail to follow board policies on safety. An employee who repeatedly violates safety procedures should be disciplined. Be kind, compassionate and caring but write it up. The goal is to keep everyone safe and, on occasion, behavior must be modified.
• Conduct an annual evaluation of your program. The superintendent should be responsible for the evaluation of the progress of safety, security and risk prevention and to that end the board should evaluate the success and progress of the superintendent.

With so much to do, so little time and so many restraints on finances, what's a board member and administrator to do? You must carve out the time to meet these demands. The good news is that there should be some financial relief with the use of the Tort Immunity Fund — a fund that can and should be used to support safety initiatives but with advice from legal counsel and auditors.

James Fritts' proposed text in an upcoming (2008) edition of The Essentials of Illinois School Finance, IASB,* states:

"The purpose of the tort fund levy, in the words of the Illinois Appellate Court, ruling on a case from Stephenson County in 2007, is to provide funding for 'expenses relating to tort liability, insurance and risk management programs.' Both a risk management policy and a plan that identifies employees and their risk-management duties (as opposed to routine safety-related duties) are necessary to justify paying salary expenses from the tort liability fund. The court defined 'risk management' as a four-step process involving identification of risks, planning to handle them, implementing the plan and monitoring and modifying the plan. A portion of the salary of the employee who handles the entire risk management process may be paid from the tort fund, along with 'educational, inspectional and supervisory services directly related to loss prevention and reduction.' Other salaries and payments for goods and settlements are excluded, except that tort funds may be used to pay for specified environmental responses."

The use of the tort immunity fund for safety initiatives must be done in a most judicious manner, with caution and with consultation. Hopefully you will find it to be a vehicle that will assist you in funding your safety priorities.

As we strive to be safe, accident free, and effective and efficient in the access of and spending of tax dollars, our educational goal must be to strike the appropriate and delicate balance between the safety of our students within a framework of a psychological need to feel safe and secure while in an open teaching atmosphere.

The ideas presented here reflect a continuous effort to be ever mindful of the absolute importance of safety and security for our students, school personnel, community members and visitors. Safety should always receive the highest priority in every school district. Years of research have produced significant changes in our understanding of the variables with respect to safety and our ability to prevent and react to accidents and emergencies as well as increased our ability to help prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Board members and administrators, working in tandem, can create safe schools that foster student learning and enhance the potential for a more productive learning environment, which should lead to improved student achievement. "Safety, safety, safety" can translate to increased "learning, learning, learning." In the end, your community will respect and value you for all you have done, and the schools will be a better place for your students.

*Information for the proposed text on the Tort Liability Fund is taken from a presentation in October 2007 by the law firm of Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick and Kohn, and from the firm's May 2007 newsletter, "The Extra Mile."

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