School Safety

The Genesee Community Charter School at the RMSC and Genesee Community Charter School – Flour City Campus strive to provide a safe learning environment so that our students can thrive physically, socially, emotionally, and academically.  Our efforts ensure that children are safe from harm, form healthy relationships, develop positive self-confidence, and are free to learn and grow.  We have established many policies and procedures to protect our students and to help them interact with others in friendly and collaborative ways.

District Safety Plan

The GCCS at the RMSC District Safety Plan was created by the District Safety Team and adopted on August 16, 2023.  Even though GCCS is housed in one building, this plan was created with the entire RMSC campus in mind and in collaboration with the RMSC Staff.

The GCCS – Flour City Campus District Safety Plan was created by the District Safety Team and adopted on August 16, 2023.  Even though GCCS – Flour City Campus is housed in one building, this plan was created in collaboration with others who occupy and own the Colgate Campus.

For questions regarding District Safety, please email Shannon Hillman, School Leader and Chief Emergency Officer at shillman@gccschool.org

Socio-Emotional Safety

GCCS fosters close and caring relationships among students and the adults who work with them. The school is a place in which students feel cared about and are encouraged to care about each other.  Our students are valued and respected, and they matter to one another and to the teacher.  Our Caring Community Plan describes our approach to developing strong, positive classroom culture and address discipline issues.  Adults and students continually work toward developing a sense of community where students feel safe by consistently being encouraged to reflect on their actions, express opinions, and work cooperatively toward solutions.

We celebrate our diverse student population and ensure that our students are learning how to navigate our global community with respect and understanding.  Diverse schools have been demonstrated to prevent bias, contradict stereotypes, and reduce prejudice.  GCCS nurtures students’ appreciation of their classmates’ backgrounds, helps students develop a sense of social justice, and equips students to live and work with those who are different from them.

Teasing, name-calling, and bullying are also grounds for removal from school or suspension at the School Leader’s discretion.  Our school houses a DASA (Dignity for All Students Act) Coordinator who is involved in bullying cases to investigate the situation.  We understand that occasional incidents may occur, but we maintain zero tolerance for patterns of targeted misuse of power and/or extreme cases.  For more information about the school’s DASA plan, please click here.

For more information about our Community Culture, please click here.

Physical Safety

We take great care to keep our school a physically safe space.  The GCCS school building is locked at all times and equipped with doorway video monitors.  Visitors to the school must buzz in to be admitted to the building.  RMSC Campus Security patrols regularly and is on call to respond to emergencies.

Our Building-Level Emergency Response Plan identifies potential hazards, outlines steps to reduce risk, and sets forth actions to be taken in the event of an emergency situation.  This plan is confidential and is not shared on the website. The School regularly performs drills to practice for emergency situations and has several safety committees with community representation to plan for these potential situations.

GCCS maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding aggressive physical contact between children.  Although GCCS understands that children are learning coping strategies to handle anger and frustration as well as appropriate ways to play, the School takes every act of physical aggression seriously.  Hitting, scratching, pushing, kicking, and other physically harmful behaviors are strictly forbidden and are cause for immediate school leadership involvement and potentially suspension.

Every discipline situation offers opportunity for growth.  Upon an incident of physical contact or bullying, students will spend time reflecting on the “broken” relationship and consider ways to repair the situation with the guidance of the Social-Emotional Learning Team.  This includes our Social Worker and Restorative Practice Coach.

COVID-19 Prevention and Response

During the summer of 2020, GCCS created Reopening Plans for the 2020-2021 school year.  This included information specific to preventing the spread of the coronavirus.  Please see the school’s Reopening Page for more information as well as links to the plan.

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Please see the Student Admissions Page for more information about our 2024-25 application process.