After the Jan. 2 and 3 staff development days, Albert Lea teachers and staff have now been trained to respond in school shooter situations.

Director of Secondary Programs Kathy Niebuhr said at Tuesday’s school board meeting that the school had 300 licensed staff spots for participants, which were largely filled, for training days. Participants underwent the ALICE Training Institute’s active shooter civilian response training. ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) is intended to help people more proactively handle threats caused by intruders or active shooters.

“Overwhelmingly, people appreciated bringing in professionals to do this work,” Niebuhr said.

Of the 239 feedback responses regarding the ALICE training, 93.7 percent selected an answer response that said they feel positive they know what to do in a school shooter situation.

“The hardest part was seeing how far off the mark we’ve been all these years,” one response read.

School board member Angie Hanson, who has also undergone ALICE training, said she has been looking for the district to do something like this.

“Once you get trained, you realize how grossly you’ve been doing it wrong all these years.”

Niebuhr said many comments from educators who attended said they felt empowered by the workshop.

The next step is to take it to the students.

“Overwhelmingly, we are ready to move forward,” Niebuhr said. The schools will be doing this over the next few months, she said.

School Resource Officer Ted Herman has been trained as a trainer for ALICE, Niebuhr said.

Also during staff development days, Albert Lea Schools Director of Special Services Tami Alphs said high school staff, one elementary school staff member and any other staff members who elected to go attended a students in trauma training, intended to help staff consider how to deal with students who bring considerable emotional baggage to class.

Also at the meeting, the school board approved a submission to the Minnesota Department of Education detailing the district’s plans to update Hammer Complex and Halverson Elementary School’s gymnasium. Deputy Superintendent Lori Volz said the MDE must review and approve the project scope before the Albert Lea school board can move forward with a resolution.

The school board will be hosting a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Albert Lea High School auditorium. School board chairman Ken Petersen said the purpose of this meeting is to solicit further public feedback regarding the intended updates.

“At this point, I think we’ve got just a small vision of what our community might want … but I think this is our time and we need to get more to the public so that we get that information out,” Petersen said.