Rocky Mountain Consulting

I’m incredibly honored to join Dr. Ken Trump and his team in supporting schools through people-centered safety and emergency preparedness work. Looking forward to what’s ahead.

One of the most meaningful parts of school safety work is sitting down with families and having honest conversations about what it takes to create safe, supportive learning environments for kids.

Thank you to the Keystone families who joined us this week for our Safety & Security Family Town Hall.

Parents are critical partners in , , communication, and culture-building within a school community.

The questions, insight, and thoughtful discussion from families reinforced something I believe deeply: school safety is strongest when schools and families work together, not separately.

I appreciate Keystone’s commitment to transparency, collaboration, and proactive planning, and the families who took the time to engage in the conversation.

When families and schools collaborate, students thrive.

Teacher Appreciation Week is a reminder that some of the most important work in our communities happens inside classrooms every day.

Teachers do far more than teach content. They build relationships, create stability, encourage growth, and help shape the confidence and character of the next generation.

Safety, belonging, resilience, and achievement all start with the adults who show up for students consistently, and teachers are at the center of that work.

To all educators and school staff: thank you for the impact you make every single day. Your work matters.

Grateful to have presented yesterday at the Arizona Charter Schools Association Compliance Summit alongside the Arizona Department of Education, focusing on authoring compliant Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs).

Compliance is the baseline, but it can’t be the end goal.

We spent time digging into what it really means to operationalize an EOP:
➡️ Reducing ambiguity during an incident
➡️ Minimizing deliberation time for staff
➡️ Increasing perceived control in high-stress situations

Because when plans are clear, trained, and actionable, people are more confident.

Thank you to the Arizona Charter Schools Association for continuing to create space for meaningful, relevant, and practical learning for school leaders.

As schools prepare to host summer camps—and as we think about half-day programs, substitutes, and seasonal support staff—this is a stark reminder:

Training cannot be reserved for the people who can conveniently attend your once-a-year preservice session.

In this case, young counselors were left without the most basic emergency training, no drills, no clear expectations, no confidence to act. The result wasn’t just confusion. It was delayed decisions, breakdowns in communication, and lives lost.

If someone is responsible for students, even for a few hours, they must know:
• What to do
• When to do it
• Where to go
• Who is in charge

And that doesn’t happen by chance. It happens through intentional, layered training that reaches everyone:
✔ Summer staff
✔ Substitutes
✔ Aides and support personnel
✔ Coaches and activity leaders

Emergencies don’t wait for your “core team” to be on campus.

Your training model shouldn’t either.

Grateful for my time in London and the surrounding area this past week, an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations and collaborate with schools deeply committed to prevention and emergency preparedness in an ever-evolving landscape.

Across multiple settings, we spent time digging into the practical side of readiness, strengthening functional annexes and exploring the role of behavioral threat assessment as a proactive, evidence-based approach to keeping school communities safe.

On a personal note, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this country, the history, the landscape, and the perspective it offers. And I’m continually reminded that no matter where you go, the common thread is this...educators showing up every day to connect with kids and make a difference.

We had the opportunity to spend time on campus with the team at NFL YET College Prep Academy last week, diving into Behavioral Threat Assessment and the critical role of using an evidence-based model in schools.

One of the things I value most about this work is team-based training in the school setting.

When you bring the full team together, administrators, counselors, teachers, you get something you simply can’t replicate in a room of 200 people:
-Real scenarios
-Real questions
-Real dialogue

That’s where the learning sticks.

You can see the immediate impact as teams begin to align on language, process, and decision-making, building a system that is not just compliant, but functional.

Behavioral Threat Assessment is not about reacting to the most extreme situations. It’s about creating a structured, consistent way to identify, assess, and support students in crisis before situations escalate.

Grateful to partner with schools doing this work the right way, intentionally, collaboratively, and grounded in research.

and I had the opportunity to spend time with educators in Phoenix recently, focusing on teacher de-escalation and classroom regulation.

We’re grateful for the feedback, 97% of attendees rated the session as actionable, informative, memorable, and practical, but more importantly, we’re encouraged by what that represents.

Because this work isn’t about a training. It’s about what happens next in classrooms.

When educators have the tools to regulate behavior in real time disruptions decrease, instructional time increases, and students are more available for learning.

At the The National Center for Prevention of Community Violence we’re continuing to build out behavior-based safety programs designed to support exactly that, helping schools create environments where safety and learning are not competing priorities, but the same outcome.

If we can help schools give time back to teaching and learning, we’re moving in the right direction.

Grateful to have attended the Peace Summit at Yavapai College, hosted by the Respect Campaign and Justice Institute.

Powerful conversations led by Jerald Monahan and centered on peace and community. Not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of civility, respect, and dignity in how we show up for one another.

What stood out most was the audience, a true cross-section of students, public safety professionals, elected officials, educators, and community social justice leaders, engaging in meaningful dialogue about what it takes to build safer, stronger communities.

That kind of alignment matters.

Hats off to Yavapai College for intentionally bringing these sectors together for a two-day event that goes beyond theory and into shared responsibility.


National Center for the Prevention of Community Violence