District 150 is preparing for safety changes this coming academic year. New state law requires the district to hold an annual drill in the event of a school-shooting incident, including participation from law enforcement.
Three new lieutenants join the District 150 school police ranks. Each lieutenant will generally manage officers in each high school and its area buildings.
District officers will also use a lower-concentration pepper spray if the need arises. Officials say that’s to reduce the recovery time from the traditional spray.
District 150 students hoping to enter seventh grade at Manual Academy do not have that option this school year. District spokesman Chris Coplan says the program was cancelled for the first time in four years because not enough people applied. He says some applications were sent directly to Manuel Academy instead of through the district school-choice program:
“Had their been applications received at the district level, the number received at Manual did not necessarily warrant having a seventh grade because of low numbers.”
Some question why the district notified applicants at the end of last month about dropping the program. Coplan says the district was obligated to place more than 200 students from lower-performing schools to ones that met state standards under No Child Left Behind. He says the District then started looking at other requests to transfer students to schools like Manuel. Many students transferred for No Child Left Behind were placed at Charter Oak Primary and Lindbergh Middle School. Coplan says newly-leased portable classrooms are getting installed this week at both schools.