What A School Safety Director Really Does

Welcome From Jekyll Island

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success at the American Book Company. I'm your host, Derek Fentozi, and here we are at Summer Gale in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Today we have our special guest, Sabrina Smith, and she is the safety director for for Valdasta City Schools, and we're so thankful to have you out here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Thank you for

Why Sabrina Comes To GALE

SPEAKER_00 0:22

having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah, so what brings you here to Gale?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I am here. I'm the safety director for the Valdasta City Schools District. So this gives me an opportunity to come and learn about the different things and the educational aspect because my focus really is on safety. So understanding the different portions of what educational leadership in Georgia is helps me to be able to support those efforts.

A Safety Director’s Daily Reality

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Okay. That's interesting. So what does the day in the life of a safety director look like?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Making sure that our students and our staff are safe, our visitors are safe. It includes making sure we're complying with Georgia law regarding safety drills, ensuring the doors are closed and locked during instruction to mitigate any risk of any safety issues that happen on campus. So that goes from prior to the bell, first bell ringing in the morning to the last athletic event at the at the late hour of the night. So from that, it's a very broad perspective of what safety is. Absolutely.

From Patrol To Proactive Prevention

SPEAKER_00 1:22

And um, how'd you get into this position? Well, I was um I'm a former police officer. I'm still a certified police officer. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Um I did uh 16 years with my previous employer, and then there was an opportunity to come to be a safety director for the school district. So it's a change of pace. I was a school resource officer at the very beginning of my career and have always um been attached to the school district in Valosta where I serve. And so the opportunity to come over and be focused on being proactive with safety and impacting the lives of our students before they get into any trouble. So um that is the the truly the purpose of the move, and I think it it furthers the mission of our school district as well to have someone who is dedicated to the safety aspect of education.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

For sure. I love your message, and you're definitely qualified for that position. For

Valdosta City Schools In Focus

SPEAKER_01 2:13

sure. And um, so tell me a little bit about what uh Valdasta City Schools are about. I don't really know much about them.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, we're located in uh South Georgia. We sit on the really on the Florida Georgia line, right down Interstate 75, take you straight through. Uh but we have about uh 8,500 students. Uh we have about uh maybe two or three thousand staff. I can't remember the exact number. But um we're known as Tidal Town USA. We have the winningest football uh team.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I've heard their football team, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

In the nation. But not only that, I think a lot of people they focus specifically on athletics, but we we truly have an academic prowess as well. We have our IB program, A B programs, we have debate teams who are like state champions or esports, we're state champions in the state.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Esports, wow. Yeah, get to play the video games. They win in everything, oh man.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

So we're we're we're centered like again in a we're in a city, urban city school, and so we have students who have you know a certain level of poverty. So to be able to um be successful with the perception of the students that we have, and to succeed both academically and athletically says a lot about our teachers, our staff, and our district.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

So wow. Save some titles for the rest of us. My goodness. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

We might, we might, we might.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Wow.

Encouragement For The Next Year

SPEAKER_01 3:37

And um, are there any last words you have for the Gale community?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, it's a great opportunity to be here. Thank you for allowing other um support personnel to be here, the networking, the um the atmosphere, the environment, the encouragement, and the motivation to make the next school year the best school year. So it's a great opportunity to be among these professionals.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Absolutely. Well, thank you for coming on, Sabrina. Yes, sir, and peace out.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Thank you.