Report details Newport-Mesa’s steps to ramp up school safety

After months of collaboration with local law enforcement, community members and educators, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s deputy superintendent presented the school board this week with a comprehensive report on the district’s efforts to step up safety measures across its 32 campuses and other work sites.

Russell Lee-Sung, who also is Newport-Mesa’s chief academic officer, was tasked in April with spearheading an in-depth review of the district’s safety procedures and policies. John Drake, district director of curriculum and instruction, took on Lee-Sung’s regular duties, enabling Lee-Sung to visit schools, meet with educators and parents and provide the school board with regular safety updates.

The goal is to inform everyone of what to do in emergencies so they feel “empowered and not afraid,” Lee-Sung told trustees during Tuesday’s board meeting.

Lee-Sung highlighted local partnerships with law enforcement and community groups, including a recent one with Stanford-based nonprofit Challenge Success to help students reduce stress in academic environments and create a more balanced life.

Lee-Sung also discussed recommendations by the Orange County grand jury intended to help enhance school safety. The jury released a report in May and requested that districts report within 90 days on how they have studied and improved safety at their campuses.

Jurors suggested that all districts require their schools to conduct site safety assessments, identify security deficiencies, determine what is needed and recommend improvements to control potential risks.

The majority of the nine specific recommendations are already implemented or in progress in Newport-Mesa, according to Lee-Sung. A few, such as requiring all visitors to present a photo ID before they receive a visitor badge, come off as “overkill,” he said.

“It makes sense to require photo IDs, but sometimes we know our parents,” he said. “[There are] logistical issues we’d want to work out.”

To emphasize the importance of identifying everyone on school sites, employees are being asked to wear their badges every day, he said.

The grand jury also called on districts to develop a system to track all visitors.

Newport-Mesa schools do track visitors, Lee-Sung said, but it’s “hard when you’re doing paper and pencil.”

He said a recommendation will be made at an upcoming school board meeting for a new districtwide visitor management system.

Newport-Mesa secured an additional school resource officer from the Newport Beach Police Department and is in talks with Costa Mesa officials for one more. If they can reach an agreement, the district would have a total of six school resource officers by the 2018-19 school year, Lee-Sung said.

Trustee Karen Yelsey said the district also needs more social workers and counselors, in addition to four recently hired psychologists.

She said the district also is considering other safety measures, but “some things we don’t discuss in public.”

Lee-Sung said district employees were provided in-person sexual harassment training this year, which he called a “big shift.”

Other projects underway include reconfiguring offices, installing fencing at some school sites and adding air conditioning at several schools. Lee-Sung said the district estimates all schools will have air conditioning by 2021.

Meanwhile, he said, officials have created a guideline to have early dismissal at elementary and middle schools on sweltering days.

Under the system, which is based on the San Diego Unified School District, students would be released two hours earlier than the original schedule if the forecast temperature is 95 degrees with a heat index (a measure of the air temperature combined with relative humidity) of 103, Lee-Sung said. Officials would make the decision a day in advance and notify parents, staff and transportation services of the next day’s altered schedule.

Schools are encouraged to modify instruction and cancel or minimize physical activities during excessive heat, Lee-Sung said.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella