December 2012
Dear Families and Community Members,
As a parent, I can relate to the pain we all feel related to
the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It defies understanding to
comprehend the actions this young man took. Sandy Hook was doing all the right
things and such a thing still happened. That makes us all feel vulnerable but
we must also realize that people who set about to do such evil and destruction
will find a way to penetrate safety measures. Please believe me when I say that
we take each child’s and each staff member’s safety very seriously. We have
many, many safety precautions in place and review those periodically. To give
you just a few examples:
- We have an emergency plan binder of safety precautions that predated me in this district. There is a tabbed section for the various types of emergencies we may face. Administrators have this binder.
- The large emergency plan is supported by a flip chart that we give to each teacher and other key staff members in the district. This is updated regularly to make sure that the names and numbers are current and up to date. The back two pages of this are a green and red paper. Teachers bring this flip chart with them on fire and other drills. They hold up the green paper to note that all students assigned to their current class are present and accounted for. Red means something is amiss. The administrators can thus make a quick, visual scan of a large area to know where all is well and where they need to investigate further. These same pages are used to communicate in a crisis, depending on the situation.
- We had two administrators trained under a REMS (safety) grant which gives them in-depth training. Out of this work, first responders have secure access to keys for quick building admittance and diagrams of each building. We have numbers on each exterior door so first responders and district personnel can communicate more succinctly. These are just two examples of coordinated and tightened security measures.
- We are at the finishing phase of creating a new All Hazards Plan which is much more comprehensive than our original safety plan binder. This work has been done with guidance from IU13’s safety expert. This plan will be shared with our local first responders in both hard copy and electronically so they can have the plans at their fingertips, using the computers in their vehicles.
- We hold periodic ‘table top’ discussions with Cabinet members and other community resource personnel. We talk through what to do given a hypothetical but realistic emergency. We are fully aware that no two emergencies are alike and that in many emergencies, precious time would be lost by looking up first steps in a binder. We need staff to be prepared to think on their feet.
- Upon learning of the CT shooting, I sent a link to a news report to our administrators. I asked each Cabinet member to think through what he or she would have done if this had just happened at his or her front door. One of our Cabinet members shared an article from CNN about best practice in school safety. We sent that to each Cabinet member, asking him or her to read it prior to that week’s Cabinet meeting. At the meeting, we discussed the article, our safety practices, and what we might do to make our facilities even safer. This is on-going work.
- We have a wonderful relationship with our local police. Beginning on that first Friday afternoon, they increased the frequency of patrols around our schools. They had already been extra mindful of our starting and ending times. We also have methods for alerting local first responders almost immediately in the event of a crisis.
- We are looking carefully at the design of all of our buildings to see if there might be safer ways to admit guests to ensure safety for our students.
- We are more diligent about keeping our classroom and interior office doors locked. Our goal is to keep our students and staff safe, providing more time for the police to arrive on the scene.
- As noted above, we do share safety procedures with teachers and practice an array of drills such as fire, tornado, bus evacuation, shelter in place, and lock down with students. Each building is equipped with a building-wide public address system so everyone can be notified of any situation or concern.
- We have cameras at each building entry. Schools have surveillance cameras which vary somewhat by building.
If at
any time you as parents or community members have concerns or see anything
suspicious, it is important that you notify the school and police immediately.
If there are further questions, be sure to contact me.
Respectfully,
Dr. Collene Van Noord
