Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds’ “One County One Protocol” safe-school initiative was presented last month to the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy.

For their work, presenters Porter County Chief Deputy Jeff Biggs and Dr. Julie Lauck, associate superintendent of the Valparaiso Community Schools, were awarded a $1,0000 grant to be added to the Porter County Safe School Commission’s Fund.

The Indiana School Safety Specialist advanced training is an opportunity for school safety specialists to obtain necessary training points for annual recertification, the Porter County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement released on Thursday.

The training is for all SROs, educators, and other school personnel who have successfully completed the basic training and must maintain their credentials. Among the keynote speakers this year were Michele Gay, founder of Safe and Sound Schools and mother of a first-grader killed at Sandy Hook Elementary; and C.J. Huff, who was serving as superintendent of the Joplin, Mo., schools during the devastating tornado in May 2011.

Over 900 educators and law enforcement officials gathered for the two-day recertification training. The school safety specialists who attended the breakout session with Biggs and Lauck were specifically interested in why and how the PCSO developed One County One Protocol. “Among the comments many had when leaving the session, the most common was how impactful the One County One Protocol initiative would be if it were implemented throughout the entire state,” the statement said.