DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- After the most recent school shootings in Parkland, Florida and Santa Fe, Texas, the Dubuque Community School District is considering more security measures in the schools.
At a special board meeting Monday, the Dubuque Community School District discussed safety in its schools- a meeting they only hold the following Monday after a school shooting.
The goal of the meeting was to discuss adding security measures to the 19 schools in the district.
The discussion was less focused on adding law enforcement, but more on adding technology to improve communication.
Superintendent Stan Rheingans explained as technology improves, and the trend and concern of these events grows, the school district needs to be prepared.
"So safety has always been an issue, but safety used to mean fire drills, tornado drills, those types of things," Rheingans said. "Now it's been decades since there's been a fire issue in a school. So we focus our drills and the use of technology differently."
Rheingans said these strategies still need to be detailed, but they could add some security features as early as the next school year.
The Dubuque Community School District already has safety measures in place with school resource officers, cameras, and automatically locking doors, but now they are looking into some specific technological advances.
Just last week, the idea was proposed to allow 9-1-1 dispatch to access a live-feed of the school's cameras.
Some of the discussion at the board meeting included adding features like more locks inside and outside of schools.
The district superintendent says these ideas could work when comparing the strategies of past shootings.
"Shooters have never gone through a locked classroom door- they always move on to something different," Rheingans said. "We're looking at different ways to section off sections of the building, so locking doors and hallways, but also making sure that students can lock in place in a classroom."
Rheingans said the best event is obviously the one that does not happen but says the district has a responsibility to minimize one if it does.
In addition to added security measures, the school district plans to hold training this summer with all staff members and emergency responders, so everyone involved can prepare and understand how to react in the event of a threat.