Safety, Security and Emergency Preparedness
- Overview
- Emergency Protocols
- Safety Drills
- Inclement Weather
- Visiting Our Schools
- Emergency Response Guide
Overview
Being Prepared
Sometimes a situation may result in an emergency response by the district or a school. While every precaution is taken to avoid emergency situations, Monticello Schools constantly reviews and improves its safety, security and emergency plans in order to be prepared in the event of a crisis. Resources exist to help staff and students deal with any crisis that might occur.
Emergency Protocols
Crisis Management
Monticello has sound emergency procedures in place, and proper training for employees to implement procedures should a crisis arise. In almost every scenario, the rule of thumb for action on the part of first responders to a crisis in a district facility is as follows:
- Call 9-1-1
- Respond to immediate needs of students and staff
- Notify district administration
- District administration mobilizes district resources to assist emergency responders
Specific procedures with variations to these general procedures are indexed for easy access by staff in an emergency for many crisis scenarios.
Crisis Communication
A crisis communications plan is in place to ensure accurate information reaches students, staff and families quickly. Information may be provided to the following sources for access by the public:
- District website
- Email to district families and staff
- Posts on district Facebook and Twitter pages
Emergency Procedures Handbook
Maintenance and implementation of the plan is the responsibility of the superintendent and delegated individuals in coordination with local emergency response agencies. The plan itself is a series of job action sheet checklists and hazard specific procedures.
The detailed information in the checklists makes them sensitive and are not considered to be public documents. Much of the information that is needed to implement a plan like this should be treated as sensitive and thus should be kept internal to district employees and emergency responders. The exact plans, locations, routes, and communication methods may be useful information to potential terrorists or other criminals.
Safety Drills
Staying Prepared
Preparation is the key to effective response in the event of an emergency.
Emergency drills help keep our students and staff prepared to respond quickly, calmly and safely to a number of situations. All schools are required to conduct at least 12 drills annually:
- Five fire evacuation drills
- Five safety drills (lockdown or lockout)
- One tornado drill
- One bus evacuation drill a year
Inclement Weather
Weather
Sometimes Monticello Schools may be forced to close school or shift to e-learning because of extreme temperatures or significant snow.
When these kinds of severe weather conditions occur, the safety and well-being of students and staff is the district's priority.
Click here for more information on our inclement weather process
Visiting Our Schools
Monticello Schools warmly welcomes visitors and volunteers to our schools.
In order to maintain safe facilities, the district has partnered with Raptor, a visitor management system that enhances our school security. This system is used to prevent unwanted visitors from entering our buildings, and to track those coming and going.
What this means:
- Visitors will be asked to provide a government-issued identification (ID) when entering a district building. This includes parents/guardians and community volunteers.
- The ID is scanned and the system quickly prints a visitor badge that includes a photo, the name of the visitor, time and date.
- IDs are only scanned once. Visitors will be looked up in the system for subsequent visits.
- Visitors will also be asked to check out when leaving the building.
Emergency Response Guide
Emergency Response Guide
Monticello Schools has adopted standardized language and procedures to use in response to crisis situations. Families may see this language used in communications or hear their student talk about safety drills that have occurred at their school.
EVACUATION:
- Leave personal items behind
- Follow adult instruction
- Lead students to nearest exit
- Assemble at least 100 feet from the school
- Take attendance
- Report missing, extra, or injured students
SHELTER IN PLACE
- If outside, go inside the school
- Continue learning
- Follow adult instruction once sheltered
- Lead students inside as quickly as possible
- Close & lock all exterior doors & windows
- Do not allow anyone in or out of the school
- Continue with classroom instruction
- Take attendance
- Report missing, extra, or injured students
- Shut down ventilation if there is a chemical release
active threat: run, hide fight
- Inside, move away from sight of the door
- Stay quiet and silence devices
- Do not open door
- Outside, move away from building
- Scan hallway and bring in students
- Lock classroom door and cover windows
- Turn off lights
- Spread students out & hide behind objects out of sight of the door
- Remain quiet, do not open the door
- Be aware of changing conditions that may require Run, Hide Fight
SEVERE WEATHER shelter
- Follow adult instruction once sheltered
- Get in the tornado safe position
- Lead students to a designated shelter area
- Instruct students in the tornado safe position (sit or kneel the hands over the back of head/neck tucked into a ball