WISD starts Citizen School Watch Safety Program

Wimberley ISD is implementing a new volunteer program that will allow community members the opportunity to help keep schools safe.

The new Citizen School Watch Safety Program will let approved volunteers participate in a variety of safety measures at each school in the district with the primary focus being an “additional set of responsible eyes and ears” on the campus.

“When we think about school safety, it really is a collective community responsibility,” WISD Superintendent Greg Bonewald said. “There is a role for our staff to play, there is a role for our students to play and there is also a critical role our parents and community members play. This is one more opportunity for us to work together to make sure our students and our staff are safe at school.”

Participants will be required to go through a background check and receive two to three hours of safety training provided by the district before being allowed to take shifts to help either during specific times of day or during different community-facing events.

“Big picture, they are serving as an extra set of eyes and ears increasing our adult supervision around the campus,” Bonewald said. “Every campus operates a little differently based on the age they are serving, so what that looks like at each campus may look a little bit different. It will really be tailored by the campus leadership to meet the needs of that particular campus.”

Bondwald stated that the program does not include armed individuals.

Team members also might work at a variety of times, including at morning drop-off, lunch time, recess, afternoon pick-up or at special events such as Grandparents’ Day, award ceremonies, pep rallies or field days.

The initiative is based on the Watch D.O.G.S. Program, which was started in 1998 in Springdale, Arkansas. DOGS stands for Dads Of Great Students and is “a nationally recognized program that has brought hundreds of thousands of fathers and father figures into the school classrooms and hallways across the country, creating millions of hours of ‘in school’ volunteer time and having a tremendously positive impact on the educational process.”

“As we were working on school safety plans over the summer for the coming school year we started to hear interest from some or our local community parents asking if there was a way for them to be involved in helping us increase school safety,” Bonewald said. “We started to do some research on programs that are out there that are volunteer in nature, and we are modeling this program off of something similar called Watch D.O.G.S… But we are modifying it to fit Wimberley and we know that we have not just great dads but great moms and other community members who are interested in helping us enhance school safety.” Community members interested in signing up for the program can fill out a form on wimberleyisd. net or by visiting forms.gle/ s4Lk7Md73JUrcj8H8.