Some important safety testing and training took place in the Newton School District just before the new school year started this past Friday. Just last week, Newton Police Chief Rob Burdess says the Department’s two School Resource Officers tested the emergency radios at each of the district’s schools.

“In the event there is an intruder in the schools or some type of active violent event, school staff can push a big orange button that sends an alert directly to police dispatch. It creates an open radio line so the dispatcher can hear everything that’s going on in the area where that radio is located.”

Chief Burdess says the emergency radios are part of the Governor’s Safety Bureau. He adds all Newton teachers have received intruder training from the School Resource Officers in the past month.

“This isn’t done in every school district in Iowa. We were fortunate enough in Newton to partner with the School District and staff to provide this training annually. All the new teachers to Newton were given the extended course while all the existing teachers were given a refresher course.”

Today is the first full day of classes in the Newton School District after an early dismissal on Friday.