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NOVI — The Novi Community School District has implemented numerous safety measures to protect the children within the district, and the school board received a report on the district’s efforts during a Jan. 23 meeting.
Dennis Huisman, supervisor of safety and security for NCSD, presented the board with all the safety measures that have been implemented within the district since June of 2023.
According to Huisman, one of the biggest things the district has implemented is the Raptor Emergency Management app. The app is on all staff phones and acts as an emergency button that coincides with Alyssa’s law. This means that as soon as the button is clicked, it will automatically call for law enforcement assistance.
“It’s great in places that don’t have good PA service, maybe if a teacher is outside, this Raptor alert will go to their phone and alert them that there is an incident happening at the school,” Huisman said. “So you are not relying on a cellphone or a walkie-talkie. You are getting information right to your phone.”
The app also allows staff to do reunification. The NCSD administrative staff were able to go through a live reunification exercise in June 2024 with the “I Love U Guys” Foundation at the ROAR Center. The exercise went through the process of reunifying students with their loved ones after an incident such as a gas leak or even a violent incident. This process ensures that kids get connected back with the right people after something happens.
“What’s nice about the app is that it really streamlines the system rather than going through papers and clipboards and binders,” Huisman said.
Huisman said he has been working with RosaLeigh Johnson, director of mental health at NCSD, on the comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines.
“We started working on it last winter. We realized we were doing a good job already, but we really needed to amp up our training for all our staff, ancillary staff, counselors, social workers, and school psychologists. We are all going through this together and then our administrators got this training as well,” Huisman said. “So we are trained up.”
He said this year they are hoping to do the same thing with suicide assessments. The school will be taking suicide risk assesment training in March through the Columbia University Lighthouse Project. Staff will be trained on what to look for as signs of suicide and how to complete a risk assesment regarding suicidal statements.
“I just wanted to thank you and Ms. Johnson for working together on this issue. This is something I care a lot about,” said Betsy Beaudoin, board member. “Obviously, I know we all care a lot about school safety and mental health, but I think it’s really elevated our response and the service the kids and the staff are getting when you start working together.”
The school is using AI technology known as “Zero Eyes” to pick up on any weapon that is brandished. He said this means they are aware when a gun comes onto any of the school grounds, and this includes guns carried by law enforcement officials, as well as anything that might pose a threat to the school community.
“The minute it is brandished, meaning in the hand, it will pick up on that and a message is sent directly to our law enforcement and our administration that there is a gun on-site,” Huisman said.
According to Huisman, 625 of the school’s 827 camera streams have the Zero Eyes technology. He said it is not on all of them because some of the cameras are focused on places where the system is not needed. He said the system is nice because it runs in the background and is on every day. He said when they do have a hit, the company has 24/7 dispatch to review each hit, as it isn’t always a weapon that the system picks up on. Huisman said that in the springtime the system has been tripped when a child carries a Super Soaker water gun to recess and when the color guard carries its batons.
Huisman is currently working on updating the schools’ emergency operations plan and hopes to present it to the board this spring. The plan details pretty much everything that could happen and goes through the different steps the school will use to handle each situation.
All cameras throughout the district have now been updated. Every camera is now 4K HD and efficient, according to Huisman. Huisman said that the district gets four different streams or views from each camera and records digitally.
Last fall the board approved the purchase of more than 500 lockdown buckets. The buckets provide some materials that the students and staff can use to get by during a lockdown situation. Most notably, the bucket itself doubles as a bathroom.
“One of the biggest complaints when a student or a teacher is in a room for a long time is that they want to know when they can use the bathroom, so this bucket actually provides a restroom, it has water, it has food, it has anything that you might need for an extended lockdown period,” Huisman said.
The buckets have now been distributed to all the different school buildings within the district.
Huisman said one of his “favorite” things that they now have is Blocksi. Blocksi is a program that allows teachers to observe what students are doing on their chromebooks or tablets. Parents also have access to the program when the students are at home as well. The program also has a student safety feature that looks for key words, and when they pop up, an alert gets sent.
“We have flagged 380 students in the last year and a half with over 1,019 incidents. So, the system is working,” Huisman said. “So, I send a message to the principal and say, ‘Hey, can you check on this student,’ and that’s really what we’re checking in on, students, to make sure they are OK.”
According to Huisman, 85.7% of the system’s hits are mental-health related. Only 14.3% are for threatening behavior.
“I didn’t quite realize that our numbers were going to be like this, but it’s definitely eye-opening to what our students are going through,” Huisman said.
The district now has mapping to provide first responders to help them know exactly where to go. The maps are being updated again this year.
The school doors have now been switched from keys to HS4 scan door systems. The process took two years to complete.
Each school in the district now has medical emergency response teams on-site. The teams consist of staff members who volunteer to undergo CPR and automated external defibrillator training to be able to help with a medical emergency within the school.
Student assessments have now been digitized through Raptor, allowing staff to see if there is a pattern with a certain student and incorporate that into their risk assessment.
“It’s clear to me that we are getting a lot of value through this role (supervisor of safety and security),” said Willy Mena, NCSD Board of Education member.
