CAMDEN — Cody Baker is the new School Resource Officer (SRO) at Camden Elementary School.

During the Preble Shawnee Board of Education meeting held Thursday, Oct. 25, Superintendent Matt Bishop shared, Baker stopped into the district office that very day to check out the building.

Bishop also reported he had spoken to the Preble County Sheriff and found they were, as of the meeting, two weeks away from the introduction of an SRO who will be split between West Elkton Intermediate and the Jr./Sr. High School, until the second officer is ready.

That officer should be in place by Dec. 1, at the absolute latest, but Bishop and the sheriff hopes to have him in place sooner. During the meeting, Bishop thought it was a possibility to have the new officer in place within three weeks.

There has been an SRO at the high school at different times. The officer in question knows he will be assigned to the school and has been spending as much time as possible getting used to the space.

In other business, it was reported:

The district performed a safety drill a few weeks ago in which staff simulated a bus accident.

“It was really eye-opening to try and come up with our district response to a bus accident with a driver and students being transported to hospitals. We had to figure out where the remaining students go and how to contact the parents. It was pretty intense,” Bishop said.

“Without going too much into it, it was a safety issue. There are some eye opening things that we need to enhance, but I think we did a good job.”

There have been wooden boards installed over door windows in Camden Elementary, so in the case of an emergency, a perpetrator cannot see into the classroom.

Board member Julie Singleton questioned what, exactly, that will look like and if it will be visually pleasing.

“[There will be a piece of wood] going on the outside of the door, so if you have a window opening, the wood will be an inch or two bigger than that space to provide a covering. It is not just filling in that area, it is covering it. They will be staining it, because we do not want it to look [bad],” Bishop said.

“I care more about the safety than the look, but at the same time, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a piece of plywood,” Singelton said.