School Safety in the News

Attorney general to announce awards for school safety ideas

School safety: Officer enforces law, not school policy, when walking halls

School-shooting simulation hones safety officers' skills

L.A. Schools Hire Security Aides To Watch For Threats

Customer Highlight: Achieving a Certificate of Recognition with Chinook’s Edge

Earning a Certificate of Recognition (COR) for workplace safety was a major goal for Chinook’s Edge School Division 73 in Alberta, Canada. Meeting the safety standards required for certification would not only significantly reduce injury rates; it would also earn the division premium rebates through the Workers Compensation Board’s (WCB) Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) program.

As the sole Safety Officer for the rural division’s 38 campuses, Linden Lonsberry is tasked with conducting investigations, training or re-training workers, managing safety tasks, making safety recommendations and addressing hazard and near-miss reports. Because of his already full workload, he needed help developing a health and safety program that met the rigorous standards put forth by the WCB.

To accomplish this, Lonsberry used the EmployeeSafe Suite to schedule, manage and sustain his safety program, which includes staff training, incident management, safety tasks (inspections, drills and other tasks) and more. With the help of EmployeeSafe Suite, Lonsberry knew the required training, safety tasks, and responses to accident and near-miss reports had been completed and he was able to easily provide the division’s inspection documents for the auditors’ review.

In order to be eligible for a COR audit, a health and safety program has to consist of the following eight elements:

·         Management, leadership and organizational commitment

·         Hazard identification and assessment

·         Hazard control

·         Ongoing inspections

·         Emergency response

·         Qualification, orientation and training

·         Accident and incident investigation

·         Program administration

“PublicSchoolWORKS helped us meet the COR requirements, with four out of the eight elements being completely automated—making them hands-off for administration,” said Lonsberry.

Receiving the COR has earned the division a 20 percent reduction in WCB premiums – a savings of approximately $43,000 per year. Using the EmployeeSafe Suite, Chinook’s Edge also saw fewer injuries and a reduction in injury-related costs. The division’s WCB claims totaled nearly $250,000 in 2003; they are now approximately $20,000, putting Chinook’s Edge 51.69 percent below the industry average for WCB claims.

To learn more about how Chinooks Edge uses PublicSchoolWORKS, click here. 

Industry News: District Administrations’ Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products Awards Program

District Administration has opened their nomination period for the 2013 Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products Awards! PublicSchoolWORKS has been able to achieve this distinction five years in a row and is aiming for a sixth! And, with your help, we will achieve it!

To nominate either of our suites, go to www.districtadministration.com/top100 to fill out and submit the nomination form by September 1, 2013.

We appreciate your nomination of PublicSchoolWORKS’ award-winning suites to be among the top ed-tech products!

Customer Highlight: Taking the “Knot in My Stomach” Worries Out of Compliance with Montgomery County Educational Service Center

As Montgomery County Educational Service Center’s Director of Human Resources, Beverly Broestl oversees the acquisition of new employees, staff training, teacher licensure, as well as the health and safety the Center’s 330 employees. In addition to all of these responsibilities, Broestl also has to ensure that all of her schools are in compliance with the numerous Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. The required annual reporting associated with OSHA alone could take weeks to compile.

“Compliance was always on my mind,” said Broestl. “We constantly worried about an OSHA visit. We were nervous that they would find something that we missed.”

To ensure complete compliance with the many OSHA requirements, the Center implemented PublicSchoolWORKS’ EmployeeSafe suite to help automate the tracking, management and completion of compliance tasks, staff accident reporting and staff training.

Instead of trying to keep up with the daunting task of managing MSDS binders, , employees  call to talk to chemical specialists or they print MSD sheets straight from EmployeeSafe’s MSDS Now!  online system. In addition, from a training perspective, Broestl and supervisors automatically receive reports letting them know who has not completed their assigned training. And, to help reduce worker’s compensation claims, the system auto-notifies key staff to complete safety tasks and the resulting data helps to implement programs to effectively prevent further injuries and claims.

Using EmployeeSafe, the Center was able to streamline safety, risk management, human resources and other administrative processes, saving valuable time and money.

“PublicSchoolWORKS takes away the knot in your stomach,” said Broestl. “It takes away that worry, day and night, that I am forgetting something. It is peace of mind.”

To learn more about how your district can use the EmployeeSafe Suite to streamline human resources, email sales@publicschoolworks.com.

Industry News: Student Bullying and Safety Reporting Systems named EdTech Digest Awards Winner

PublicSchoolWORKS’ Student Bullying and Safety Reporting Systems were selected as the Cool Tool - Reporting Solution winner in this year’s EdTech Digest Awards Recognition Program.  The Parent InfoCenter was named a finalist in the Cool Tool - Parent/Student Portal Solution category. This awards program, now in its third year, honors tools, trendsetters and leaders in the education and technology trades.

This is the third consecutive year that PublicSchoolWORKS was recognized by the program. In 2012, Steve Temming, president and CEO of PSW, was named a Leadership Award finalist in the program. In 2011, the Student Bullying Reporting System and the EmployeeSafe Staff Training and Compliance Management System were both named Cool Tool Award winners.

To view the full list of 2013 finalists and winners, click here.