Administrators and safety specialists from Alpine School District joined leaders from across the state in December at the Adobe campus in Lehi for a specialized safety training hosted by the Utah School Safety Center.
The event was one of four workshops scheduled this school year for safety specialists throughout the state, focusing on the PRE
PaRE curriculum developed by the National Association of School Psychologists.
The PRE
PaRE workshop aims to equip school leaders with a common framework, language, and set of best practices to ensure consistency across districts. Michelle Knight, Threat & Crisis Response Support Specialist at Utah School Safety Center, stated that the framework allows for local context while maintaining statewide standards.
Workshop 1 serves as the designated curriculum for all district and school safety specialists. The goal is to establish standardized protocols that are vital during multi-agency emergency responses. Colin Gill, an assistant principal and safety specialist at Pleasant Grove High School, noted the importance of having common language regarding school safety and the value of collaborating with other schools.
In these workshops, safety specialists learn how to build flexible teams for various crises, create response plans, use a common language for rapid response, and utilize tools to meet student and staff needs during emergencies.
Dan Melville, a school administrator and safety specialist at Sage Canyon Middle School, expressed hope in using these systems to identify and prioritize training for emergency responses. He noted that the complexity of facility safety for large community centers like schools requires collaborative, research-based approaches.
Alpine School District stated that all school safety specialists will eventually be trained in the PRE
PaRE model. The district continues to ensure employees participate in high-level training to focus on preparation, prevention, protection, and mitigation.
