
Oct 4, 2023
It’s always important to be prepared in the event of an emergency.
Dear Countryside Families: It’s always important to be prepared in the event of an emergency. This year our school safety day will be on October 11th, beginning at 8:40. As a school, we will practice our district’s emergency procedures and protocols both in and out of school. This will include having students practice shelter-in-place, classroom evacuation, and lockdown for times when we want to keep everyone safe inside their learning spaces. We will also practice how to respond if we need to quickly and safely evacuate to our alternative site, Brown Middle School. The district website has information and resources for families. The staff reviewed all procedures and protocols during our September professional development afternoon. We will not be using the term hostile event or practicing that with children on October 11th. We feel that the most important message to share with your children is to follow the directions that the adults give to children in the event of an emergency.
Our goal is to be matter-of-fact about both and minimize any sense of fear or danger. When teachers are calm and confident, children feel safe. Toward this end our crisis team has developed a protocol for teachers and for you as parents, which you can use to help your child anticipate both activities. It is important for children to know what to do, especially if they are not with their regular class during the drills. We have clear plans for that to ensure that we keep an account of every single child, and it’s important that those plans are properly tested with the drills.
We want to share our specific plans with you so you can talk about it with your child and help them be comfortably prepared for the practice. I have included the language that we provided to teachers to help guide the preparation:
Practicing Evacuation Protocols
Classroom Evacuation “We stay with our class and continue to learn in an alternate learning space.” Sometimes there could be a situation in the classroom and we need to relocate the classroom to another space. We call this “classroom evacuation”. The teacher will give the instruction to “gather materials” (if time allows) or simply to “line up to transition to another learning space”, and the class will quickly and quietly move to the alternate learning space until the situation in the classroom is resolved. Examples of situations warranting classroom evacuation include, single student medical or behavioral crisis, electrical outage in that area, and heat/air conditioning malfunction.
Shelter in Place “Stay Inside, Stay Safe” Sometimes there could be an emergency that means we can move around inside the building or in our classrooms, but we can’t go outside. In this case, we would hear an announcement that gives us instructions to stay inside our classroom or inside the school building. We carry on with our learning as normal. We would hear an announcement when it is okay to leave our classroom or go outside again. Examples, if needed: someone was injured and we want to give them privacy while they are being cared for, a truck spills chemicals outside and the police and fire department tell us it is safer for us to stay inside.
Lockdown “Silent and invisible” Other times there could be an emergency that means we need to stay in our classroom and be very quiet to wait for instructions. This is called a lockdown. You will hear a lockdown announced over the intercom or I will make a loud announcement in the classroom. In a lockdown, we make sure the classroom door is locked and we pull down the shades. We’ll all get together (Name WHERE) in the room, away from the door and windows. We need to stay silent and calm until I tell you it is okay to talk. Example: Someone is inside our school without permission and we’re not sure if it’s safe.
Evacuation “Get Out, Stay Out” Sometimes there could be an emergency inside the building and we need to leave the building to stay safe. We call this “evacuation.” The alarm is a signal that we need to line up safely and leave the building. Everyone needs to line up quickly and quietly and we will exit the building as quickly as possible. Once we are outside, everyone needs to stay quiet so we can get a count and give instructions. In some emergencies, we might need to move far away from the building to be safe. If we need to do this, we will walk together to Brown Middle School. I will tell you if we need to leave the school area. We will practice both of these evacuations today. Examples of situations warranting evacuation response, if needed, include: smoke in the building, fire
We have coordinated our evacuation both with the Newton Police Department and our evacuation site, Brown Middle School. Staff will lead the children to those locations through a prescribed walking route. We want you to be aware of the timing for this and the way we will prepare the children.
The Safety Day will take place Wednesday, October 11th beginning at 8:40 and will end by 10:30. If the weather is bad, we will find a date later in the year for the evacuation drill and just practice our drills that can take place onsite.
And, as always, should you have any questions and concerns, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Best,
Beth Herlihy