NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Marc Stewart is Newport News Public Schools' first-ever Executive Director of Crisis Prevention and Planning.
"The goal for me is for everyone to forget we exist," said Stewart.
Following two recent shootings within NNPS buildings, the district has made significant changes to school security and safety. Marc Stewart is leading the initiative.
In a sit-down interview with News 3, Stewart elaborated on his time in law enforcement and in the FBI.
"I spent almost 22 years in the FBI as a special agent," he said. "I was hired to lead the security for the school [district] and to take a deep dive into the policies, the plans, and the standard operating procedures that our officers go through. And to bring a fresh light."
In 2021, a 16-year-old student opened fire inside Heritage High School. Two teens were shot and survived, and two other students were injured while evacuating the school. The child accused of pulling the trigger was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Most recently, in January, gunfire rang out inside Richneck Elementary School. Police say a 6-year-old shot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner. Zwerner survived but the shooting garnered national attention, and now the former teacher is suing NNPS for $40 million.
Richneck Shooting
TIMELINE: Everything we know about the shooting at Richneck and the aftermath
With a salary of $140,000, Stewart says he's been tweaking school safety policies since his arrival in June.
"We tweaked our policies to give it a more proactive angle," said Stewart. " I have an extensive crisis management background. And a lot of people think that is taking care of a crisis after it occurs. But 95% of what we do is prevention."
The former FBI agent says he believes in a layered approach to school security.
One important layer is the newly required clear backpack policy. All NNPS are required to wear clear backpacks when inside of school buildings. Lunch and athletic bags do not have to be clear but are subject to search.
"A clear backpack is simply a layer of security, not the layer of security," Stewart explained. "Our goal is to make it difficult for people who want to bring contraband into our schools. And that's just not guns and knives and weapons. It's vapes and drugs and things like that. So when you look at the whole layered approach we have, it made sense to us this year to give the clear backpacks a try, collect the data, and see if it does make us safe."
The backpacks are free to all students and replacements will be given if a backpack breaks. The school district says they spent $321,365 on the backpacks.
Another layer of school security, according to Stewart, is the hiring of more school security officers. The district will have 117 school secuirty officers, which is a 45 officer increase compared
to last year. Stewart has also hired 10 part-time substitute security officers.
"We have 117 full-time positions right now," he explained. "And we have 10 part-time...they'll be called in if somebody calls in sick so we can have a full complete staff all the time at every school."
NNPS says the budgeted amount for all school security officers is $6,309,361, which includes all salaries and benefits. Not included in that price are three supervisors who will oversee the 117 school security officers.
"We have three supervisors that will roam the area and they have an area of responsibility in the North, Central, our South in our community," explained Stewart. "To hold our officers accountable and to help them through their day, answer questions, work through problems with them. And then you have myself over top."
Stewart says these officers will patrol school grounds and monitor the weapon detection systems now placed at every school entrance.
"Teachers will not be involved in the weapons detection process," said Stewart. "If the weapons detective systems go off, then we are going to determine what made it go off."
Stewart says the weapons detection systems are specialized to detect dense metal rather than thinner metals.
"The barrel of a gun is made specifically very durable and very tough. A knife blade is made of very tough, very durable, very dense steel. And that's what we're looking for," he added.
When asked if he fears that Newport News schools will start to feel like prisons, Stewart says these steps are necessary to stop school violence before it happens.
"I don't see where these schools could feel like a prison at all. In this day and age, we have to work hard to keep our students safe. And we're taking the steps that are necessary," he explained. "I love the word proactive. I use it every day here. If you're reacting to a problem, you're not keeping anyone safe."
But Stewart says he's open to parental feedback and changing policies after receiving data.
"I've had parents at school board meetings ask me why we've done things, and once it's explained to them, I think they're very receptive to the decisions that we've made. We can't please everyone, but we're gonna try," he said. "And at the end of the year, we'll look at the data. And we'll see what worked and didn't work."
Stewart says his three year plan is to make these procedures feel like an everyday routine. In five years, he hopes to become invisible.
"My goal in five years is to be so forgotten that no one thinks about security. No one thinks about their safety. It's just a given that it's working," he added. "I guess my goal would to become boring."
Stewart has also served as a police officer within the city of Newport News. He worked as a robbery detective before getting promoted to sergeant, and then became a member of NNPD's SWAT Team.
