NEWARK – Education officials recognized Steve Price for his contributions to school safety this week.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the Worcester County Board of Education, Ed Clarke, executive director of the Maryland Center for School Safety, presented Price with the 2016/2017 School Safety/Security Director of the Year Award. Price is chief operating officer and school safety supervisor for Worcester County Public Schools.
“The biggest thing that Steve brings to school safety is that professional collaboration and partnership with not only law enforcement but fire and rescue and your peers in the school district,” Clarke said. “We thought it was important to recognize Steve.”
The Maryland Center for School Safety, one of 16 such centers throughout the country, was formed shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
“Our number one goal is to attempt to have a coordinated and comprehensive approach to school safety and make sure all of our children and students and staff and parents come to school every day feeling safe and secure…,” Clarke said. “Kids can’t learn and teachers can’t teach in an unsafe environment.”
Clarke said that each year, during the center’s school safety conference, an individual was recognized for his or her contributions to school safety. Price was nominated for the award by Superintendent Lou Taylor.
“Of all the other nominations we received none were made by a superintendent,” Clarke said. “I think that speaks volumes to the leadership that both of these gentlemen have.”
Clarke said several things led to Price’s selection as the recipient of the 2016/2017 award. When Worcester County schools experienced a slew of bomb threats, primarily robocalls, Price convened a community-wide meeting of educators and law enforcement officers. In addition, he said Price had done a “tremendous job” in arranging professional development training and was a regular participant in state-wide conference calls related to school safety issues.
Taylor too praised Price’s efforts. He said that when the position of school safety supervisor had been created during his tenure as chief operating officer, he’d recommended Price for the job. When Taylor became superintendent and promoted Price to chief operating officer, he asked him to maintain his role as safety supervisor.
“Certainly that was a great move on our part…,” Taylor said. “The safety and security of our schools never wavered with Steve.”
