The district earned the top safety certification in active shooter preparedness, becoming a Texas first.
SPRING, Texas — Spring ISD is now the first school district in Texas to earn the region’s highest-level certification for active shooter preparedness.
The “Active Shooter Preparedness Certification” from the Region 4 Education Service Center recognizes districts that meet 21 safety standards, including emergency communications, detailed campus mapping for first responders, and controlled-access procedures. KHOU 11 got an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the measures already in place at Westfield High School and the training that helped secure the recognition.
Spring ISD Police Chief Matthew Rodrigue said the certification took more than a year and required buy-in across the district.
“It’s a great feeling honestly,” Rodrigue said, adding, “this was not a quick effort it took us over a year to complete it, and it wasn’t just the police department doing the lifting. We had to have buy-in from the entire district from different parts of the district.” He credited the Board of Trustees for “challenging and empowering us to go make this the safest school district possible.”
Region 4, which works with districts to improve student performance, enhance safety and operate more efficiently, presented the award after evaluating the district’s compliance and its ability to execute them under pressure. Region 4 covers the greater Houston area and several surrounding counties.
“It’s not an easy program to do,” said Ken Culbreath, director of the Office of Emergency Management School Safety at Region 4. “It’s real work done and a lot of engagement that has to happen with stakeholders in order to make this certification mean something in the end.”
Spring ISD had implemented several upgrades before pursuing the certification, including silent panic alarms in every classroom under Alyssa’s Law, installed three years ago, well ahead of the statewide mandate. Every staff member also has an emergency alert app that can notify police immediately.
To harden campuses, the district added an AI phone entry system that requires visitor ID verification before entry, impact-resistant glass on windows, and open-gate weapons detectors at every entrance.
“These are specifically designed to pick up firearms,” Rodrigue said, noting the detectors speed up arrival times to class because they ignore common items like binders and keys.
The program emphasizes not just planning but execution. Last October, Spring ISD ran a four-and-a-half-hour active-threat exercise with more than 100 participants from multiple agencies, using mock victims and an armed intruder scenario to stress-test procedures.
“We don’t want to just meet the standard, we want to exceed,” Rodrigue said. “And through exercises like this, we learn a lot.”
The district plans another full-scale exercise this October and aims to make it an annual event.
“We’re not going to kick back on our heels and rest just because we achieved this certification,” Rodrigue said. “We’re already looking for ways to push the envelope for next year.”
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