When it comes to handling worst-case scenarios, Oxford Community Schools is going to be prepared.
It was announced at the Board of Education meeting Nov. 9 that the district, in conjunction with the Clarkston and Lake Orion school districts, were recipients of the $250,000 Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Grant that was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.
Only 104 grants were handed out nationwide in 2009; seven were in Michigan.
‘Anytime were are able to concentrate more efforts on safety and security and getting staff trained, that is certainly something we all have a concern about and we want to be able to do as much as we can,? said Deputy Superintendent Nancy Kammer.
The three districts combined to create the North Oakland County School Safety (NOCSS), which will coordinate with Oakland County Emergency Response. The grant will fund the expanded emergency medical plans and training. Clarkston Community Schools will be overseeing the use of the grant funds under project manager David Reschke, who is the Deputy Superintendent of Clarkston Community Schools.
The grant will allow Oxford to test and improve its communication among the community when a crisis arises and practice their plans in order to be prepared. The four areas of Oxfords emergency management will be tested: Prevention-Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery.
‘It’s a great opportunity for our communities to come together and also for our district to work with our community responders to ready ourselves for emergencies that occur,? said Kammer.
The school districts will work with all community responders including fire and police departments. Their protocols will be tested in three different areas: intruder simulation, pandemic incident and a chemical spill. Each school will host a simulation.
During a simulation, employees will be trained on how to effectively keep the students safe. They can be either in charge of handling injuries, getting teams back together or grouping students together.
After each simulation, each school will have a chance to go over it and determine how effectively everything was handled. The debriefing session will allow opportunities for staff members to express and discuss concerns about the plan and allow the district to send positive public relations to the community and inform them of the district’s preparedness in a certain situation.
‘When you debrief, you can find out what things you can do to improve and what things you can add to your crises manual,? said Joe Sayers, of EduTech Solutions.
It will also allow community responders to practice their own protocol within the schools. Students can participate in the simulations to practice what to do.
In between simulations, there will be monthly training sessions that will support the NOCSS and develop strategies to increase the effectiveness of protocols for handling schools crises.
Kammer said that the grant will help improve the current safety protocols that are in place.
‘All staff has received information and all staff have an actual document that list emergencies. They also have a safety plan emergency response packet,? Kammer said.
The packet has information on various situations and the protocol that is to be followed.
The staff also undergoes numerous training exercises throughout the year.
Several years ago, the school district and the safety team leaders met with the community and went over the safety protocols, responses and plans and made some revisions on it.
‘The fire department was very actively involved in making checks and looking at communication devices and double checking all of the procedures as well,? said Kammer.
‘We have a pretty thorough plan in place, and this is really reinforcing it (by) having us review the current procedures and determining if revisions need to be made,? she said.
The grant will allow Oxford to test and improve its communication among the community when a crisis arises and practice their plans in order to be prepared. The four areas of Oxfords emergency management will be tested: Prevention-Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery.
‘It’s a great opportunity for our communities to come together and also for our district to work with our community responders to ready ourselves for emergencies that occur,? said Kammer.
The schools districts will work with all community responders including fire and police departments. Their protocols will be tested in three different areas: intruder simulation, pandemic incident and a chemical spill. Each school will host a simulation.
During a simulation, employees are trained on how to effectively keep the students safe. They can be either in charge of handling injuries, getting teams back together or grouping students together.
After each simulation is over, each school has a chance to go over the simulation and how effectively everything was handled. The debriefing session will allow opportunities for staff members to express and discuss concerns about the plan and allow the district to send positive public relations to the community and inform them of the district’s preparedness in a certain situation.
‘When you debrief, you can find out what things you can do to improve and what things you can add to your crises manual,? said Joe Sayers from EduTech Solutions.
It will also allow community responders to practice their own protocol within the schools.
Students can participate in the simulations to anticipate what to do.
In between simulations, there will be monthly training sessions that will support the NOCSS and develop strategies to increase the effectiveness of protocols for handling schools crises.
Kammer said that the grant will help improve the current safety protocols that are in place.
‘All staff has received information and all staff have an actual document that list emergencies. They also have a safety plan emergency response packet,? Kammer said.
The packet has information on various situations and the protocol that is to be followed.
The staff also undergoes numerous training exercises throughout the year.
Several years ago, the school district and the safety team leaders meet with the community and went over the safety protocols, responses and plans and made some revisions on it.
‘The fire department was very actively involved in making checks and looking at communication devices and double checking all of the procedures as well,? said Kammer.
‘We have a pretty through plan in place, and this is really reinforcing in and also having us review the current procedures and determining if revisions need to be made,? she said.