Letter to Parents re: School Safety Audit

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As you may know, the Hamilton Police Service has been helping us improve school safety in the wake of a disturbing incident. HPS conducted a safety audit this fall with a specific focus on our rear playground.

The results of the safety audit raised recommendations that relate to playground access, surveillance and site reinforcement (signage, etc.)  The most significant change the audit recommended had to do with making our playground only for students and staff.

However, we want to hear from our community before taking our next steps. I discussed the audit  results with School Council and Home and School Association, but would like to hear from more parents.

The challenge we have is that we are very proud of the community feel at Earl Kitchener, yet we need to ensure that student safety is paramount in all that we do. We feel that it is necessary to take action on this issue, and will work with community input in doing so.

This is why we will work the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board’s research department, E-BEST, to create and distribute an online parent survey in January. This will help us gather more feedback before deciding on how to move forward.

Please look for more information on this online survey in the weeks ahead. Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

Richelle Bratuz
Principal