By Rob Sample
Attendees at a recent symposium in Mahopac learned how their local school district is working with law enforcement and using new technology to keep school buildings secure and students safe.
The Mahopac Central School District’s first safety symposium took place Jan. 27 in the high school auditorium. The event was the handiwork of Troy Bilyeu, the district’s administrator for safety, security, and compliance.
While much of the event focused on the important ties the district has built with law enforcement and other community stakeholders, the clear showstoppers of the event were a variety of new, high-tech tools the district has adopted. Once implemented, these tools will help ensure building security, enable better response by safety personnel, and foster accurate communication with the community at large – including with school parents, according to administrators.
“The vision I had was to really look at building our relationship with our community, because it’s going to be the community that keeps our schools safe,” said Bilyeu.
One sobering anecdote Bilyeu shared was that the chief of police in Uvalde, Texas, did not even have a police radio on him May 24, 2022, when he had to respond to the Robb Elementary School shooting. Nineteen students and two teachers died that day.
Mahopac’s Director of Technology Benjamin August outlined a host of physical security improvements the district has recently made at its five campuses. Among the most noteworthy, the district is putting in new electronic locks programmed with staff IDs, and which can enable access by law enforcement in the event of a crisis.
In addition, an alert system has been installed with both speakers and flashing lights, to inform students and staff of a new safety condition and offer appropriate instructions. New blue lights on the exterior warn people not to approach a building in a crisis.
August also explained that the district is installing special window films on classroom windows to deter intruders. Another type of film will go on cafeteria windows, letting people inside the cafeteria see the outdoors while blocking those on the outside from viewing the interior.
One of the most intriguing new technologies is a mapping tool and database that is in the final stages of development at the district. Once complete, it will give everyone involved – teachers, school administrators, and first responders – an accurate blueprint of each building, right down to the names of each room.
The system is based on a technology developed by the U.S. military for mapping potential battle zones. To build an accurate database in Mahopac, teams of ex-service members have conducted detailed walkthroughs at all of the district’s schools.
“Most people have a challenge navigating at their school during back-to-school night, let alone the challenge that a first responder faces when under a lot of stress,” said Austin Sprague, chief operating officer of Hamilton, N.J.-based Critical Response Group, the system’s developer.
The database and mapping system is based on the gridded reference graphic, a technology developed by the military to map out and plan for zones of potential threat and armed operations. It is used throughout the armed services, according to Sprague.
“This is the same technique used to plan and execute the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound,” he said. “As the founders of CRG left the service, they realized there’s a parallel problem facing first responders when they show up to navigate, say, a high school in a time of emergency. They need to make important decisions about how they navigate through that site, how they communicate about that site, what’s going on, and where they need to get to.”
By providing such detailed electronic maps – right down to the nearest parking spaces – first responders will be better able to get where they need to be quickly, and with the right resources and tools.
For Sara Servadio, the term “safety” has a somewhat different meeting. As Putnam County’s commissioner for mental health, social services and the youth bureau, Servadio is now overseeing the implementation of a new, countywide communications tool called the Putnam County Threat Assessment Management System.
PCTAM is a web portal-based system for reporting and communications in the event of a targeted violence incident and is part of a statewide initiative that Gov. Kathy Hochul launched in the wake of a shooting at a Buffalo Tops Supermarket in 2023.
“A very high percentage of the threats we get in Putnam County are mental-health related,” said Servadio. “So, we are connecting students and adults to services that support them, which keep them out of the criminal justice system.”
In doing so, the county can help to ensure that people in need receive the right attention, and communities – including schools – become safer as a result.
All schools in Mahopac have key “boots on the ground” should any crisis develop. Those folks are the school resource officers and school peace officers who keep buildings secure every day. SROs are active-service police officers, while SPOs are people who have retired and returned to service part-time, noted Sgt. A.J. Pizzuto of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office – the program’s supervisor.
One important safety component, Pizzuto noted, is that SROs and SPOs are armed.
“Every building in the district has an armed person in the school,” he said. “At the end of the day, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is what a good guy with the gun.”
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