All Saints Families,

Thank you to everyone: students, faculty, staff and parents for a great start to our school year.  It has been fast and furious, and we are just beginning what we anticipate to be another successful, fun and exciting year at All Saints. 

Summer break is one of the busiest times for school administrators as it provides time to really dig in and evaluate all of our programs and protocols.  We review the year and look for areas of improvement in all of our academic offerings, extracurricular activities, daily school life, logistics,  operations and the list goes on. School security and the safety of our students, faculty, staff and families are at the top of our list every summer.  When we left for summer break last May we were all saddened by the events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde which undoubtedly created an extra sense of urgency for schools to evaluate and improve school safety.

We are elated to share with all in our community that recently we received a tremendous financial gift from current All Saints grandparents, Reverend Pat and Bill Russell, that will allow us to improve campus safety by installing a protective layer to all of the glass doors and windows on the ground-floor and all of the accessible second story glass doors and windows at our school.  The protective coating will prohibit shattering and deter the opportunity for anyone to gain unauthorized entry into the school by breaking or shooting out the glass.  This was a project that had been evaluated in the past but was financially out of reach.  The project was presented to the Board of Trustees in our August meeting and discussions ensued on how we could finance the project. Following Rev. Pat’s attendance at the meeting, she and Bill communicated to me that they felt strongly about the project and wanted to donate the necessary funds. Plans are underway to install the protective glass film in the next few weeks. Please join me in expressing appreciation to the Russells. Throughout the long history of All Saints, this family has always been a pillar of support and we are so appreciative and humbled by their generosity and care for our community.

We have also enhanced safety by adding an electronic entry into the main entrance of the school. Waiting a brief moment to be “buzzed” into the front office is a small price to pay for helping lessen the chance of unauthorized entry by anyone.  Our faculty and staff recently engaged in multiple presentations by the Lubbock Police Department (LPD) on active-shooter training and in-depth instruction on our Standard Response Protocol (SRP) during our week of professional development prior to the start of school.  We have also improved and increased SRP education for students by