SISD Police Honored Statewide for Establishing Countywide Reunification Team

The Sherman ISD Police Department was recognized by the Texas School Safety Center for its leadership in forming the Grayson County School Reunification Team, which will deploy countywide following critical school emergencies to safely reconnect students with their families. 

The SISD PD accepted the 2026 Statewide School Safety Spotlight Award on behalf of all 13 Grayson County school districts at the annual Texas School Safety Conference held June 22-26 in San Antonio.

The awards recognize innovative and impactful programs that support Texas school safety mandates and implement effective emergency preparedness and violence prevention strategies. The Grayson County School Reunification Team was previously chosen as the Spring 2026 honoree in the Collaborative Community Partnerships category prior to being selected as the overall category award recipient for the 2025-26 school year. 

“We are honored to showcase these individuals, partnerships and districts for their outstanding contributions to school safety in Texas,” said Kathy Martinez-Prather, Ph.D., director of the Texas School Safety Center. “We hope their work will inspire others and offer models to inform safety practices throughout the state.”

Described by Grayson County Emergency Management Director Sarah Somers as “local governing and community cooperation at its best,” the Grayson County School Reunification Team involves joint training and shared resources to manage response in the event of a large-scale incident that forces a school to evacuate. The team creates dedicated personnel from each district trained and ready to deploy across Grayson County to support reunification, so no campus faces a major incident alone. 

Sherman ISD Police Chief Heath Wester first saw the opportunity to collaborate with surrounding districts to support reunification following a training exercise in May 2025. He was invited to present on Grayson County’s partnership at the Texas School Safety Conference, which is designed to share current trends, best practices and innovative, evidence-based approaches in school safety and security.

The conference is hosted by the Texas School Safety Center, which provides safety and security information through research, training and technical assistance for K-12 schools and junior colleges throughout the state, and is attended by hundreds of school-based law enforcement officers, emergency managers and other school leaders each year. 

"It was an honor to receive this recognition and share Grayson County's work with my counterparts across Texas,” Chief Wester said. “But we didn’t create this team to win awards. We created it because working together makes every district stronger and better prepared to respond when students and families need us most. I hope our partnership inspires other communities to strengthen their own emergency preparedness through collaboration."