With the referendum in place and changes beginning to be more visible in and around the school, the past few years have marked many changes in the way DHS is set up and run, especially when dealing with matters of security.  To help curious parents learn more about what new procedures are being implemented and how safety at the school is being handled, the school’s Student Resource Officer, Anthony Kropp, and new security manager, George Grubb, created an opportunity for parents to learn more. Dubbed “Coffee with Kropp”, the first meeting was the morning of November 18; it allowed parents to hear what’s going on in the school, what’s changing, and ask any questions they had about these changes.

“Anthony Kropp, our SRO, he’s relatively new to Deerfield High School having the SRO position, so being the second year being an SRO and me first year being a security manager, we thought it was a great opportunity to reach out to the community and build a relationship with them,” security manager George Grubb said.

The goal of the program, which will repeat three more times throughout the year on December 16, February 10 and April 21, is to let the community know that the school has made these additions to the staff and what they can do to help.  Parents who need to contact Kropp or Grubb can find their information on the website, but putting a face to the name will potentially help when trying to contact them about issues or concerns.  Since the security programs have gone through so many changes, the information sessions are beneficial to the parents as well as the security team.

“We’re hoping to get feedback from the public as far as information they would like to know or changes they would like to see at this school,” Kropp said.

Past experiences parents have had with Kropp have contributed to the success of reaching this goal. Last year, during a panel that the parent network put on, the attending parents suggested smaller meetings with Kropp in order to ask questions and talk. The school responded with Coffee with Kropp, which furthered the ability for parents to feel comfortable when needing to contact him about issues.

“I feel like [Kropp] is someone I know.  I feel like if I had a question or a concern . . . and I didn’t know what to do, I would not hesitate to call Anthony Kropp,” Susan Wexler, one of the attending parents, said.  “That was their goal.”

According to Grubb, some of the potential questions were thought to be about the changes being implemented for visitors such as the new lanyards that visitors must wear while in the building.  As this was explained, the feedback was positive, especially about new construction such as the double doors at each entrance.

“They’re really happy to see that that’s taken place and they like the fact that the staff here is helpful and polite and all that.  I think they like the fact that the police officer is here also because it is one extra level of security for their kids,” Kropp said.

There has not been anything especially violent that has occurred in the area to cause these changes to happen; it’s just a response to the school violence throughout the country.  The security team has been trained in AED and CPR and is now being trained in first aid in order to increase safety in the school, all of which was explained during the first “Coffee with Kropp.”

“Nothing’s happened, we’re being proactive and we want to stay ahead of the curve.  We want to be proactive in the program, we want to be proactive in the safety,” Grubb said.

The hope for the program is that parents will tell their friends and spread the word in order to reach more people about what’s going on at the school and how they can stay involved.  The first session resulted in a good response, so as the year goes on and more changes are made, more questions should be raised.

“I believe we will have more people coming every time that are new, some return people that will have questions on other issues, but I think we’ll have new people every time,” Grubb said.

The next Coffee with Kropp will take place on December 16, and will be focused on the recent problems with sexting in the area.

When asked if the meeting met her high expectations, Wexler said, “It exceeded my expectations… by having these kinds of conversations and having an educated parent body…we can prevent [events like Sandy Hook] from happening.”