School Bell article by Greg Marino, November 8, 2017
School safety is a topic that I have written about regularly in the School Bell. It is important to keep the mindset, practices, and habits around keeping all adults and students safe at the forefront of our attention. With this in mind the Williston Schools Safety Committee has been focusing its most recent effort on preparing for a specialized drill called a relocation / reunification drill at Allen Brook School. This drill will occur sometime in the coming weeks and is an exercise that prepares us for an emergency that would require us to evacuate the school building and relocate temporarily to an alternate site. In the event of certain emergencies it may not be possible for students and staff to safely return to the school building. That would require us to remain at the relocation site and initiate a reunification plan. “Reunification” is a fancy way to say, “get all students back to their families.” We have not practiced reunification procedures in recent years so this will be our chance to increase our preparedness for a scenario in which one of our school buildings is not available for a length of time. Our Safety Committee is very fortunate to have the cooperation and assistance of the Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) agency as well as local first responders. In fact, VEM will be observing and evaluating the school on its performance during the drill. During the reunification drill, alternative dismissal procedures will be carried out from our relocation site in order to get all our students where they need to go. Bus transportation will be provided as usual. The Part2 afterschool program will take place as usual at ABS. During the drill, you will receive phone calls providing updates on the progress of the drill and providing important information. We ask that you please listen to these messages and not call the school for information.
Speaking of communication, the Safety Committee has prepared the informational letter below entitled, Parents Expectations During A School Emergency. We are providing this letter now and are asking you to become familiar with it in advance of possible emergency situations at either of the schools. If you have questions or concerns after reading the letter, please feel free to contact me directly. At WSD, we take the responsibility of ongoing improvement in this area very seriously. On behalf of the Safety Committee, I thank you for your partnership in this work.