PRINCETON: Schools face surprise visits from state

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Public schools in Princeton and around the state could be getting a surprise visit in the coming weeks from state officials monitoring school security drills.
   Unannounced visits are due to start later this month or in early February, the state has said.
   Barbara Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said Wednesday that school districts would be picked at random, although not every district will get a surprise visit.
   She said state officials, including representatives from her office and the state office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, might go to more than one school when visiting a district.
   She said the idea of surprise visits was not in response to the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last month that left 26 dead. Rather, it was an outgrowth of the work of a school security task force started in 2006.
   The issue of school safety has become paramount in the aftermath of the Connecticut shooting. About 650 people attended a conference the New Jersey School Boards Association had Friday regarding the issue.
   ”School officials are reacting with great concern, just the same way parents are,” said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the organization, in a phone interview Wednesday
   ”It was good to hear the differing perspectives of educators, an assistant attorney general, as well as security and law enforcement personnel,” said Princeton Board of Education President Timothy Quinn, who attended the conference, held at the College of New Jersey.
   Locally, the Princeton Police Department and the school district said they work closely with one another. Police Capt. Nicholas K. Sutter said the two sides meet every year to go over a variety of responses and protocols. Also, police observe two security drills during each school year.
   ”We have a very, very good relationship with the school district,” Capt. Sutter said Wednesday.
   He said both sides — the schools and the police — are familiar with the other’s response protocols in case of an emergency.
   Princeton has unarmed security at its middle and high schools, according to Superintendent of Schools Judith A. Wilson. There are no plans to add them at the elementary schools.
   Aside from fire drills, schools must perform drills for an active shooter, a bomb threat, a lockdown and an evacuation — two times for each of those scenarios.
   Since 2010, state officials have been making announced visits to see the drills in person.