Three Maine School Districts Partner with PublicSchoolWORKS to Help Make Schools Safer

Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow Public Schools are the first three districts in the state to use the EmployeeSafe Suite to take safety practices online

Cincinnati, Ohio (April 9, 2019) — PublicSchoolWORKS, the number one provider of complete, online safety and regulatory compliance programs for K-12 schools, has expanded to Maine with new partnerships at Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow Public Schools. These neighboring school districts in Central Maine are using the EmployeeSafe Suite, an online system that combines online software and content, deep industry expertise and highly skilled people resources, to provide a complete and scalable school safety and regulatory compliance solution.

“If you look at all the training courses we are required to provide, there aren’t enough hours in the school day or professional development days to get this done in person,” said Eric Haley, superintendent of Waterville Public Schools. “Online training is the answer because employees can take it whenever it is convenient for them.”

EmployeeSafe provides districts with access to 500+ online safety courses. This includes courses districts are required to deploy to employees, including Suicide Prevention, Restraint and Seclusion, and more, as well as courses on other important safety topics, including Slips, Trips, and Falls or Ladder Safety. Once assigned, employees take courses anytime, anywhere they have access to the internet. 

While online access to a vast range of courses was valuable to Haley, he was initially drawn to the system’s automation and documentation of employee training completion. Leading up to the training deadline, the system periodically reminds employees to complete their courses. When an employee completes a course, the system automatically updates their training transcript and stores it in the online system. When the deadline passes, the system automatically sends training non-compliance reports to administration to make follow-up and training completion easier. 

“Districts don’t have an easy and reliable way to keep track of employees’ training completion, and it’s a tragedy waiting to happen,” said Haley. “That’s what makes EmployeeSafe so powerful. The minute an employee completes an online course, the system updates their transcript and you can see who has taken which courses and print transcripts with just a few clicks.” 

Waterville Public Schools began deploying the online training courses this past October. After seeing how EmployeeSafe made staff training and meeting regulatory compliance easier for the district, Winslow and Vassalboro School Districts both signed contracts with PublicSchoolWORKS.

“PublicSchoolWORKS is a quick and efficient way to provide mandated trainings to all of our employees. In addition to supplying our staff with the necessary information, it also provides all employees with the required  documentation per state mandate,” said Peter Thiboutot, superintendent of Winslow Public Schools. “The list of additional required mandates continues to grow. Staff development is  a crucial component of the teaching profession. We are at a point where all of our professional development time would be consumed by various trainings leaving little opportunity for our instructors to have professional conversations with their peers about teaching and learning. PublicSchoolWORKS affords us the opportunity to maintain our professional development days for those important conversations.”

Winslow Public Schools is conducting a soft roll-out of the online courses with new employees this month and Vassalboro Public Schools plans to make the online courses available to employees this summer. 

“The real differentiating factor for us was the ability to customize the program based on our needs,” said Alan Pfeiffer, superintendent of Vassalboro Public Schools. “If we want to add a module or a training course of our own, but still utilize the online documentation, we can. As superintendents, the three of us are trying to build sustainability and capacity so whoever follows in our footsteps have solid foundations to build upon.” 

About PublicSchoolWORKS
Since 2000, PublicSchoolWORKS safety compliance management solutions have focused on helping schools easily meet ever-changing compliance requirements, improve staff and student safety, cut costs associated with risk, and reduce administrator and staff time and effort. PublicSchoolWORKS is the only, complete K12 safety compliance management program created by and for schools, and is proud to provide districts with award-winning technology and support recognized by North American educators. For more information on how PublicSchoolWORKS can improve district safety programs, contact 1-877-779-6757 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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