Coming into the 2025-26 school year, House Bill 33 required each school system to have at least one breaching tool and one ballistic shield available at each campus, marking a new unfunded mandate that the district was required to comply with.
Rick Goodrich, chief of safety and security, told Community Impact the school district has been ahead of the curve when it comes to safety measures, utilizing local partnerships and resources to provide the best school security.
What’s happening?
Partnerships with Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch and Kendall County provide the district with school resource officers at each campus.
Goodrich said these partnerships allow the district to access the best staff, which would not be possible if the district operated its own police department.
“We wouldn’t be able to recruit and retain the same level of officers that we are able to contract for,” he said.
While responding to emergencies and calls is a priority for the district, Goodrich said the team has taken the initiative to work on prevention.
Through various methods of monitoring social media and other forms of communication, the district can identify potential threats or scenarios before they come to fruition.
These preventative efforts help keep Boerne ISD students safe and help students in need of mental health support and other care.
“In my three years, we haven’t lost a child to self-harm, violence or overdose,” Goodrich said.
Each of these initiatives through the school district has made Boerne ISD a staple of safety across the state, and district staff have led training programs to help other districts and groups enhance safety, Goodrich said.
What they’re saying
Isiah Gault, threat intelligence specialist for Boerne ISD, said predictive policing is a challenge, but district staff are focused on evolving the way they approach student safety.
“We are trying to predict and show these signs that may have been missed by school personnel because they don’t have the resources that we have and our experiences,” Gault said.
Ultimately, the goal of the district is to ensure all staff and students can be educated in a safe environment, Goodrich said.
