Governor Bill Ritter was in Colorado Springs at Pine Creek High School Tuesday morning signing two bills that will make schools across the state safer.

Senate Bill One, establishes a School Safety Resource Center. It's a program for schools to reach out to and it's designed to strengthen school safety systems.

School is a place for children to learn, educators to teach and communities to thrive. "It is not an environment conducive to any of those things if in fact it's vulnerable to different kinds of attacks," said Governor Bill Ritter.

Gov Ritter says reducing the drop out rate and raising academic standards is important. "But our success will be for naught unless we can keep our school's safe", said Gov Ritter.

Ritter says school safety is a top concern for all of us which is why he signed Senate Bill One.

"That's clearly a huge milestone, but the reality is, the work has just begun," said State Senator John Morse.

The Resource Center will form a master plan to prepare, respond and recover from attacks but their focus will be on prevention.

"I think the School Safety Resource Center is extremely exciting," said House District 20 Representative Amy Stephens.

Ritter also signed House Bill 12-67. "It requires the School Safety Resource Center to pilot a school mapping system for first responders," said Gov Ritter. Ritter said it would be electronic mapping and it would get critical help to schools faster.

Also on Tuesday, the Pikes Peak Region Safe Schools Coalition met for the first time. The coalition is aimed at making all different kinds of agencies like the Department of Human Services and the Department of Criminal Justice, to communicate better. All agencies agree, solid communication, is key.

Senate Bill One is a pilot program. It'll be used in five Colorado communities. If successful, it'll expand to all 178 school districts in the state.