From campus security to emergency response, addressing the safety of students and faculty remains an ongoing topic of conversation at The Baldwin School this year.

Baldwin has adopted Ruvna, a safety system designed to enhance on-campus safety. Ruvna allows faculty and staff to efficiently manage drills and crisis situations, while also enabling school administration to ensure the location and well-being of students and staff. Ruvna specifically allows schools to track attendance and send mass notifications from a single dashboard.

Currently, more than 800 schools across 43 states rely on Ruvna to improve communication, coordination, and response times both during drills and emergency situations.

“Ruvna allows [our faculty and staff] to communicate together,” Head of School Mrs. Lynne Macziewski said.
In addition, Baldwin has recently installed cameras across campus and adopted a new technology system.

Dr. Thomas Heverin, director of technology at Baldwin, shared that the locations of these cameras were chosen because there were previously blind spots across campus. The cameras were installed in areas around the Athletic Center, the blue hallway, the Residence, and some parts of the faculty parking lot.

Dr. Heverin explained that the new cameras add to current coverage and help Baldwin target student safety.
“In the urgent need that we ever need to find a student on campus, [security footage] allows us to see if they left campus,” Dr. Heverin said.

Overall, Baldwin has revamped the safety and security committee to be less reactive, and more proactive, Mrs. Macziewski said.

Some of the ongoing proactive safety measures at Baldwin include emergency protocols and identification technology. For example, monthly fire drills train both students and faculty on how to respond in an emergency. Students in grades six through twelve also wear mandatory ID lanyards, which provide access to doors across the entire campus and maintain a secure environment.

Beyond student access, IDs also account for visitors on the Baldwin campus. All adult visitors, from student family members to outside contractors, must scan their IDs into a machine that checks for registered sex offenders.

According to Mrs. Macziewski, these systems are not without challenges. One of the main security challenges on Baldwin’s campus occurs during on-campus events, such as soccer games or school concerts, when visitors do not have their IDs scanned because of the large number of people on campus.

Checking IDs prior to campus events would likely be impractical, however.

“I don’t know how receptive our parents would be to everyone having to go through a check system when they come,” Mrs. Macziewski said.

This challenge of balancing safety with maintaining a warm and opening environment is reflected in other privacy-related decisions.

Mrs. Macziewski explained that most schools in this area publicly share their school schedules online. While this allows families to know when events take place and creates a welcoming environment, it also presents potential concerns as it gives strangers access to when and where large groups of people will congregate on campus.

Baldwin’s security concerns differ based on students’ ages and grades. Mrs. Macziewski explained that she has relatively fewer safety concerns about the safety of the youngest students at Baldwin, who are always in the presence of a trusted adult on campus. On the other hand, middle and upper school students have more freedom during their free periods – especially for upper school students, who can sign out to leave campus.

Therefore, it is important for students to remember that they need to sign out when leaving campus, Mrs. Macziewski said. She explained that the school needs to be able to quickly and efficiently find a student’s location whenever necessary.

As she looks to the future of safety on the Baldwin campus, Mrs. Macziewski emphasized the importance of training adults to respond using current best practices in emergency situations.

For example, hiding from threats was a practice that adults at Baldwin may have been taught when they were younger, but it is no longer the best safety protocol. Today, the ideal response is more comprehensive, including other actions besides hiding.