The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board outlined security changes at a committee meeting Monday night, including plans to hire a risk manager to handle possible emergencies.

The possible addition of a risk manager, who would oversee the crisis management system, is part of the district’s efforts to increase security following the discovery of a gun Jan. 4 at Kingsley Elementary School, 2300 Green Bay Rd.

“We are going through an intense period and looking at our policies and procedures,” Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy said at Monday’s Program/Policy Committee meeting. “We are taking advantage of all our capabilities.”

Murphy also said the district has enacted a “phone tree” system, which helps contact at least 10,000 parents in case of an emergency at the school. This idea follows parents’ concerns that D65 was slow in communicating the gun incident to families and teachers.

“This is important because it puts the burden of communication where it should be and that’s on the district,” said board member Mary Erickson. “It’s our responsibility to be the source of communication.”

Murphy said the district is meeting with Evanston and Skokie emergency personnel to discuss possible improvements to D65’s crisis management plan. He also said that any broken cameras in the schools’ security systems have been repaired and officials have inspected schools’ exits and entrances.

The school board aims to improve D65’s hiring process so it would be notified by police if an employee has a criminal record.

Along with increasing security at D65 schools, the board’s goals for 2005-06 include improvement in middle schools and special education.

The board recognized problems within the middle schools, though board member Bob Eder stressed the need to obtain specific data about school performance in order to follow through with the board’s goals.

“Everything I’ve heard is this (bad) feeling about middle schools, but it’s all anecdotal,” Eder said. “There’s no data to support these feelings that parents have about middle schools.”

Board member Marianne Kountoures said that although the board focuses on middle school students who are not meeting standards, it should also look at those who are exceeding standards so they are not left behind.

“If what people are saying is that kids are not challenged enough, we should look at statistics of students who are meeting standards,” Kountoures said. “We need to have a goal for kids in the middle and the upper category to make sure we keep them there.”

The board stressed the importance of focusing on special education. On Monday the board approved a district improvement plan that includes measures to increase communication between special education teachers and classroom teachers.

The district improvement plan also aims to increase all students’ test scores.

“We’re hoping to see a movement up from the bottom,” Murphy said. “At some point we want to see a significant increase. We’re right at the verge of breaking through to a category where students are meeting expectations.”

Reach Kate Ward at [email protected].