Inside Rock Hill's $336M Vision for Safer, Smarter Schools with Andrew Jones

In this episode, Matt Rogers sits down with Andrew Jones, Executive Director for Safety and Emergency Management at Rock Hill School District (South Carolina), to explore how safety and design intersect in modern school construction. Andrew shares his winding path from youth ministry to law enforcement, teaching, and school administration before landing in his current role. The conversation dives deep into the district's new Sunset Park Elementary School project — a $336 million, 10-year facilities initiative — covering CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), hardwired access control, AI-powered cameras, generator-backed security systems, and pod-style learning layouts. Andrew emphasizes collaborative decision-making, visiting other campuses, and balancing beautiful, light-filled learning environments with rigorous safety standards. He closes with his guiding philosophy: prepare and plan rather than simply hope and pray, all in service of keeping students and staff safe.

Takeaways:

• Safety is built in from day one, not added later.
• School security now covers access control, cameras, communications, and weather alerts.
• Critical systems run on backup power to stay functional during outages.
• Campus tours and community input shaped the new pod-style school design.
• Proven, practical solutions beat flashy tech — "prep and plan," not "hope and pray."

 

Episode 347 of the Better Learning Podcast

For more information on our partners:

Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) - https://www.a4le.org/

Education Leaders' Organization - https://www.ed-leaders.org/

Second Class Foundation - https://secondclassfoundation.org/

EDmarket - https://www.edmarket.org/

Catapult @ Penn GSE - https://catapult.gse.upenn.edu/

Want to be a Guest Speaker? Request on our website