LCSD Superintendent Frank Schofield talks to KVNU For the People host Jason Williams
LOGAN — How has the Utah legislative session performed from a school district point-of-view? On KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday, Logan City School District (LCSD) superintendent Frank Schofield was in-studio and expressed appreciation for local legislators and feels those in education are heard by them.
“We’re very fortunate in Cache Valley to have a very involved legislative delegation that works very closely with us. We text them throughout the year but definitely during the session when we have bills we have questions about, things we’re excited about, things that we’re concerned about. We text them, we call, we work with their interns and, of course, we’re down there regularly during the session, on the Hill, to meet with them,” Schofield explained.
Currently, Representative Dan Johnson (House Dist 3) has a bill (HB 140) that addresses school safety.
Many schools have active shooter drills and his bill would standardize these and also address the best way that these topics should be discussed with younger children, such as kindergartners and first graders.
Schofield got choked up when revealing he was an elementary school principal when the Sandy Hook shootings occurred.
“And I should take the moment and say this is exactly the response that educators have when these types of things happen,” Schofield explained, “because you are trying to provide a safe, engaging environment that promotes student learning and promotes student safety. We know people can’t learn if they don’t feel safe.”
He said it’s vital to provide this safe environment because the message that students consistently see is that the world is not safe.
“We have young people who are living with the impression that there are no safe places,” he added. “For some students, if you have a student for whom home is not a safe place and now they see messages in the media that school is not a safe place, well where are the safe places? And we have to do things to communicate that there are safe places for children to go.”
Schofield said he believes that is the driving motivation behind Johnson’s bill.