Dr. Michael Doyle
Dr. Michael Doyle
Principal’s Corner
In 2005, former Trenton Superintendent Dr. John Savel and the Trenton Board of Education had the vision to improve all schools in Trenton in key areas. One of the areas was to make Trenton Schools “safe and healthy.”
Through the support of the Trenton community, a bond was passed to help improve the safety and health of the Trenton Schools. This included improvements to the heating and cooling of the school. Major improvements were made to the science department with labs, classroom, space and equipment.
Trenton High School has a number of items in place to keep the school safe. As part of the bond, safe entrances were created at all schools. Only one entrance is open for public use after 7:30 a.m. at Trenton High School. All other doors are locked. All visitors must sign and sign out. The students must sign in and sign out after 7:30 a.m. Students are only allowed to leave with parent permission. We also have closed campus for lunch.
In the past, through the work of the Trenton Police Department, an “active shooter” drill was held at the high school. The Trenton Police Department, in conjunction with the high school administration, drilled in real time as if an “active shooter” was in the high school. The Trenton Police Department practiced this mock situation in the high school should there ever be an active shooter in the building. Both the school and Police Department are better prepared should such a situation arise.
Trenton High School also has worked with the Police Department and city officials to hold a “table-top” simulation should an emergency arise at the high school. All of this is a cooperative effort to keep all students in the Trenton Schools safe.
Under the new laws passed in Michigan, Trenton High and all buildings in Trenton must conduct at least five fire drills per school year, three of which must take place by Dec. 1. There must be a reasonable interval between each drill. Also, two tornado safety drills per school year must be conducted, one of which must take place in March as well as three lockdown drills per school year, including security measures appropriate to an emergency “such as the release of hazardous material or the presence of a potentially dangerous individual on or near the premises.” At least one of the drills must take place by Dec. 1 and at least one after Jan. 1. There must be a reasonable interval between each drill.
Trenton High, again with the cooperation of the Police Department, will conduct an “internal threat,” and an “external threat” as part of the lockdown drills, as part of the three mandatory lockdown drills.
It’s also important to note that Trenton High School will conduct at least one of the “internal threat or external threat” drills during lunch, or at another time when a significant number of students are present, but not in classrooms.
On a different note, Trenton High School is also gearing up for an External Review through the AdvanEd process. This process will take place Feb. 22 through Feb. 24. This is the accreditation of Trenton High School as part of the District Accreditations team. Trenton High School has been fully accredited since 1927.
A team of five educators, with the lead from out-of-state and in our case Missouri, will be spending time evaluating Trenton High School and the other three buildings in the Trenton Schools. Staff works to continually improve the Trenton Schools. This is an external team coming to Trenton to evaluate, support, provide feedback, and suggestions to help make Trenton Schools a great place for learning.
Team members will be spending time in classroom, meeting with administration, staff, students and community members. The team will be presenting to the Board of Education. For the external review, an executive summary has been created, a self-assessment report, stakeholder feedback diagnostic, student performance diagnostic, AdvancEd Assurance, and the School Improvement Plan, all completed by Jan. 24.
There will be a special Board meeting on Feb. 24, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. as the External Review team will report their findings in the Board of Education Conference Room of the Neil E. Van Riper Administration Building, 2603 Charlton Road, Trenton.
Dr. Michael Doyle is principal at Trenton High School.