Yorktown Independent School District (TX)

District Overview: 
Schools: 3
Employees: 86
Students: 540

Chad Gee, superintendent of Yorktown Independent School District (ISD) in Yorktown, TX, knew that his staff felt overburdened. Federal and state regulations required that they receive training for in-school safety, but the courses themselves required increasing amounts of time and energy.

“We spent so much of our in-service days on compliance training that we felt like it was taking away our staff’s opportunity for other professional development,” Gee explains. “While safety training is very important, our staff needed time to hone their teaching skills.”

Yorktown ISD needed a more efficient approach to training, Gee knew. But training was only one part of ensuring safety compliance within their district. Like many other public schools, Yorktown ISD needed a more streamlined, comprehensive approach for everything from reporting accidents to the proper handling of chemicals.

The EmployeeSafe Suite provided the solution.

HOW IT WORKS

After the initial set up, the EmployeeSafe Staff Training System automatically emails each employee with links to their personalized online courses. (In addition to courses about bullying and harassment, for example, a chemistry teacher also receives courses about the safe handling of chemicals, while a coach receives training about concussions, etc.) Each course has a deadline for completion, but employees can complete the courses when and wherever they choose. To ensure employees complete the training in a timely manner, the system periodically reminds them to complete their training before the deadline. If an employee fails to do this, the system automatically sends non-compliance reports to administration.

In addition to the Staff Training System, Yorktown ISD uses EmployeeSafe’s Staff Accident Management System to report staff accidents. In the past, when a staff member suffered an injury on campus, he or she would have to report to a secretary who then had to complete an inefficient paperwork process. Now, with EmployeeSafe, the injured individual simply completes an online accident report, and the system immediately emails key administrators.

At Yorktown ISD, before investing in EmployeeSafe, staff also needed to sift through lots of paperwork to properly label and handle chemicals. Today, With the EmployeeSafe SDS Now! System, employees have 24/7 access to online safety data sheets (SDS), which, of course, can be easily printed. Staff can also call a 24-hour hotline manned by chemical safety experts to have SDS emailed or faxed to them, obtain chemical information, or, in the event of an emergency, receive immediate assistance. The district spreads awareness of these resources with posters and stickers (provided by PublicSchoolWORKS) that feature the hotline information. In addition, all custodial staff and science teachers are assigned an online course about SDS and handling emergencies like a chemical spill.

MORE SAFETY AND MORE TIME

By maximizing safety and efficiency with the EmployeeSafe Suite, the staff of Yorktown ISD now have more time to consider methods for improving the lives of their students.

“With the time we got back from moving staff training online, we’ve been able to focus our in-service days more on curriculum-related issues,” says Gee. “We’re able to focus on more effective teaching practices that promote student success.”