The average school building in America is 49 years old, with only 21 percent receiving significant renovations, according to a recent study. But as school leaders grapple with addressing pressing challenges facing America’s aging school infrastructure, they also must respond to evolving safety and mental health concerns.
During an AASA conference panel discussion on Thursday titled “Amplified Learning: The Next Generation of Communication & Safety in Education,” superintendents from three diverse school districts shared their strategies for balancing those challenges. All three have worked to improve their school environments and have deployed Audio Enhancement, a tool that districts can use to innovate communication and safety.
In the 16,000-student Oceanside Unified School District in Oceanside, Calif., for example, superintendent Julie Vitale described how her district passed a bond during COVID to fund comprehensive upgrades for four schools, allocating $6 million yearly to “modernize schools and keep them fresh.”
“We've implemented cameras at all schools with facial recognition features and security in main offices,” Vitale noted. “We've also installed Audio Enhancement’s system with lanyard alerts in classrooms that can immediately notify the office in an emergency.”
Andi Fourlis, superintendent of Mesa Public Schools, Arizona's largest district with 55,000 students, shared how her district passed a $350 million bond in 2018 and leveraged $75 million in ESSER funds to upgrade HVAC systems while implementing a three-year plan to secure all front offices throughout the district.
Dicky Barlow, superintendent of the 4,400-student Mountain Brook Schools in Mountain Brook, Ala., emphasized his district’s approach of “keeping warm and caring while being safe.” That includes teacher-controlled classroom cameras that serve multiple purposes from monitoring health emergencies like seizures to enabling podcasting opportunities for students.
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the importance of creating school environments that feel welcoming while maintaining robust safety measures. “Joyful students need to feel safe and at home away from home,” Barlow said. “Being seen, heard, valued and known is essential.”
To that end, Mesa Public Schools has focused on knowing students by name and engaging them as individuals. Mountain Brook Schools’ approach emphasizes that students only learn if they are engaged, making engagement and hospitality pillars of their district philosophy.
Oceanside’s district has expanded socio-emotional learning resources, placing elementary counselors at every school in addition to middle and high school counselors. That’s particularly important for their diverse population, which includes military families, Vitale said.
Multilingual communication needs are another area of focus, the superintendents said. Vitale highlighted her district’s upcoming pilot with Audio Enhancement, which includes a translation service program supporting Spanish, German, French, Vietnamese and other languages to ensure all families can participate in their children's education.
All three districts are using Audio Enhancement’s technology to improve engagement. Superintendents emphasized that today's school safety approach must be comprehensive, integrating physical security measures with student well-being initiatives and communication systems that foster connection rather than isolation.
(Lynette White is chief communications officer at Palo Alto Unified School District in California.)
