AUGUSTA, Maine — For four years, the Maine School Safety Center, a branch of the Maine Department of Education, has worked with individual districts to upgrade safety practices, emergency preparedness, and transportation safety.
The mission of the center has grown in recent years, according to director Robert Susi. Now, Susi and his staff help schools with the center's safe schools initiative, behavioral threat assessments, and work to ensure all Maine kids and staff feel welcome in their school communities. The services provided by the center focus on a wrap-around and whole student approach.
Susi said that some districts in Maine don't realize the center offers its training programs and services for free. It's a way, he added, to help districts save costs.
“I know how tight their budgets are, so we try and provide as much training as we can, as much assistance as we can to schools so that they can use those very important tax dollars on their other programming within their schools," Susi explained.
The goal is to work with schools and address their specific needs, so that Susi and his team can assist in the most appropriate ways.
One reminder Susi shared is to keep in mind that school buses will soon resume their normal routes, if they haven't already, so he wants Mainers to remember to give buses plenty of space if they're picking kids up or dropping them off. School zone speed limits will also be back in effect.
The center is also looking for creative solutions to solve Maine's bus driver shortage. You can find more information about that effort, or learn how to apply to be a bus driver, here.
Susi spent more than 20 years as a school resource officer and encourages parents and kids to find a trusted adult in their school building that they trust, connect with, and go to if any issues arise.
“Children can be much better students if they feel safe and secured and cared for and they're not hungry and they're not bullied and they can enjoy their school experience, and that’s kind of where our office steps in," Susi said.