School safety overseer selected by department

Doug Bradberry, a nearly 14-year employee of the Arkansas Department of Education, is the agency’s newly appointed school-safety coordinator.

As such, Bradberry, 55, will assist the state’s public schools and districts in developing school safety policies and procedures, and in conducting school safety assessments.

Additionally he will work with the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division on revisions to the Arkansas Public School Academic Facility Manual. He also will collaborate with the governor’s office to implement recommendations that were made last year by the Arkansas School Safety Commission.

Bradberry’s appointment to the coordinator’s position comes after he served as an Education Department liaison to that 18-member commission, which was established by Gov. Asa Hutchinson after the Feb. 14, massacre of 17 people last year at a Parkland, Fla., high school.

The Arkansas commission met for nine months and made an array of recommendation in areas such as mental health and prevention; law enforcement and security; audits; emergency operation plan and drills; intelligence and communications; and physical building security,

Hutchinson said Thursday that the commission provided a comprehensive list of recommendations.

“I commend the Department of Education for making school safety a priority and reallocating an existing position to assist districts with their efforts to improve school safety for all students,” he said.

Kimberly Friedman, a spokesman for the Education Department, said the new school safety coordinator position was made possible by not filling a school program manager job at the agency.

The salary for the safety coordinator is $50,872.

Bradberry has worked in the education commissioner’s office, in the Education Department’s curriculum unit and in its research and technology section. He has provided support to the state Board of Education and to the Commission on Closing the Achievement Gap.