The Cedar Rapids City Council approved amended SRO Agreement this week

Cedar Rapids Community School District is working closely with principals and CRPD on operationalizing the amendments to the SRO contract that was approved by the Cedar Rapids City Council on October 12, 2021. CRCSD has begun training opportunities with SRO’s and administrators.

The first opportunity was on de-escalation and CPI (non-violent crisis intervention) training that took place on Sept. 29th and 30th. The strategies taught in this training provide staff with an effective framework for decision making and problem solving to prevent, de-escalate, and safely respond to disruptive or assaultive behavior.

The next training will be for SRO’s on Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). The IDI is a cross-cultural assessment of intercultural competence that is used by thousands of individuals and organizations to build intercultural competence to achieve international and domestic diversity and inclusion goals and outcomes. The district utilizes this assessment to help support individuals in their personal development around intercultural competence. CRCSD has restorative practices training scheduled for the end of October and trauma informed care scheduled for early December.

In addition, CRCSD is working on updating our procedures, collaborating around responses to student behaviors, as well as steps to achieve outcomes and goals. This is done by analyzing data and discussing various perspectives on ways to improve CRCSD’s operational practices. We will have data to share on the SRO program from the months of August and September by the end of October. CRCSD is also working on the more visible changes that include soft uniforms. These new uniforms will be arriving in the next few weeks.

Nicole Kooiker
Deputy Superintendent