73.0°,
Partly Cloudy Safeguarding students and staff
Five Towns yeshivas plan to hire a security director
To improve overall security procedures while making the best use of their financial resources, the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway and Yeshiva of South Shore will partner to hire a director of security.
“We are trying to work together to secure all the schools,” said Reuben Maron, executive director of HAFTR, which has 1,200 students, from preschool to 12th grade, in two separate locations in Cedarhurst and Lawrence. “This could be cost-effective and improve our ability to do lockdowns.” During a lockdown, no one is permitted to leave or enter a school building.
HALB Executive Director Richard Hagler said that a director of security would oversee existing security personnel, ensure that policies and procedures are adhered to and look for ways to upgrade school safety. “Our goal is to keep the students, faculty and staff safe and maintain control over situations as they arise,” said Hagler, who oversees nearly 1,700 students and approximately 300 employees at five different schools under the HALB umbrella: the Lev Chana Early Childhood Center and the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, which share a building in Hewlett, the Davis Renov Stahler High School for Boys in Woodmere, the Avnet Country Day School in Cedarhurst and the HALB Elementary School in Long Beach.
“We are pooling our resources to get more bang for our buck,” said Rabbi Dovid Kramer, executive director of Yeshiva of South Shore. Kramer’s school has 560 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and a staff of 62.
Hagler and Kramer agreed that the hiring of a security director was not prompted by the shootings in Newtown, Conn., last December or the bomb threat called in by a student at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov High School in Lawrence on April 16.
The administrators said that many schools are reviewing, and trying to improve, their security. “We are just trying to upgrade our security the best way we know how,” Hagler said. “The safety of our children is first and foremost.” The budget for the position has yet to be set, he added.
