Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph..

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 59F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

ST. JOHNS — Two evenly matched football squads squared off Friday night as Blue Ridge visited St. Johns.

Congress has passed the Inflation Reduction Act. President Biden says this is a success story, in part because it will reduce the deficit by $305 billion over the next decade. IRA mainly reduces the deficit by raising taxes and regulating drug prices; the act increases federal spending and s…

Security gates are on either side of the main hall way at Coronado Elementary School.

Security gates are on either side of the main hall way at Coronado Elementary School.

The Coronado Elementary School, in the St. John’s Unified School District, recently amped up security for the safety of their students. As of Aug. 24, all visitors must check in to the front office. According to their post on https://www.facebook.com/CoronadoSchoolStJohnsAz, “No adults should be walking through the hallways unless they have been cleared by the front office first. Once checked in to the office, visitors will receive a visitor badge, which they must wear for the duration of their visit. Security gates have been placed on either side of the main hall way, to ensure visitors or others don’t sneak through. If you need to visit with your child for a few minutes, we will call them up to the front office. You can now drop off any cafeteria money to the front office and we will make sure the cafeteria gets it.”

In the Snowflake Unified School District, superintendent Hollis Merrell said, “School safety is a primary concern for the Snowflake school district and any school district. We do take measures and practice those things annually. We have employees, including myself, that go to trainings, come back and train other employees and that’s happening again this year. We review the plans each year and make changes where needed.

“Certainly law enforcement is involved. We have a close connection with our local police department and with any agency in the area that responds when there’s a situation at a school. In addition, our county recently received some funding through the state, to provide us with technology that is going to be very helpful to connect us with all of our law enforcement agencies, allowing us to communicate in real time, if there’s an event. Basically, if we activate this system, all the law enforcement agencies in the area can be contacted; we won’t have to use 911.

“For example, the last school lockdown we had, we were on the phone here, trying to contact all of the other school principals to make sure they knew what was going on. That takes time and sometimes you can’t connect with them. This new system will really speed up the process, we’re really excited about it.”

Merrell went on to say that there are other safety measures in place at their schools, but making those features public would be counterproductive.

Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse provided the June 29, 2022 Media Release regarding the new technology: “The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and the Navajo County Board of Supervisors have approved a contract with Mutualink Technology to implement an emergency alert and interoperability system within several school districts in Navajo County. Navajo County was selected by the Arizona State Legislature as one of four pilot counties in the state to receive preliminary funding for this program.

”The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office has chosen Mutualink to implement the Legislature’s School Safety Interoperability Program passed last year in response to the increase of school shootings. Mutualink’s cloud-based platform has two distinct advantages. First, it creates an interoperable, or across jurisdictions, system where law enforcement and school districts can work from the same communications platform. The interoperability will allow the first responders to work with and from the same information in realtime. This application can also be expanded in the future to implement other first responders such as fire and EMS and other private community partners.

”The second is that it gives school administrators the ability to instantly share live video, voice, pictures, emergency plans and floor plans with law enforcement. School administrators need a way to communicate with dispatchers and first responders quickly because of the ever-changing nature of emergency situations, making real-time information critical.

”NCSO will be partnering with the following school districts and law enforcement agencies to begin this pilot program: the police departments in Winslow, Holbrook, Snowflake/Taylor, Show Low, Pinetop/Lakeside and White Mountain Apache Police, the School Districts in Joseph City, Mogollon, Sequoia Schools, Winslow, Snowflake, Show Low and Holbrook.

Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse said, “In rural counties like ours, we often have to work with different agencies. When Mutualink is used, other agencies will automatically get the same alert to start heading to the emergency. We support each other very well, especially when responding to these critical incidents. Getting that information out is critical. If this could save us a minute or two, that’s even better.”

In other Snowflake School District news, on Aug. 17, students and community members gathered for the “Snowflake/Taylor Night of Service”. Folks were asked to bring weed eaters, shovels, rakes, tree pruners and hedge trimmers, to clean up around all the campuses. Larson Waste provided dumpsters.

Merrell said, “It was a great event, but we did get rained out this year. Chad Brimhall has organized this community service for our six schools and the district office location. We have lots of community members that come out and help clean up the campuses after a wet summer. We had a lot of weeds, even though we had a crew that was hired taking care of weeds this summer, there was still a lot of weeds left to take care of.

“We are very grateful for our community that comes out each year and helps us to get our campuses looking great. We love the communities we serve and we appreciate the partnership we have with them.”

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