EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
The school has an Emergency Procedure Manual describing responses to various emergency situations including: earthquakes, fires, power outage, loss of water, serious accident or illness among staff or children, severe winter storms, school intruder/strangers/volatile encounters, hazardous waste accidents or chemical emergency. If you would like to review it you may borrow a copy from the office. The staff reviews it annually and rehearses portions monthly.
Emergency Drills
Prudence and state law dictate that we rehearse monthly with the children the appropriate way to evacuate the building in case of fire, how to lock down or shelter in place and how to seek protection in an earthquake. This can be upsetting to some of the younger children and we strongly encourage you to practice for earthquakes, and to develop and practice a fire evacuation plan at home so that this is a familiar concept and not something that just happens at school.
Emergency Kits
In view of our location in a zone of potentially catastrophic earthquakes we have been asked by the Dept of Emergency Management to have parents provide an emergency comfort kit for their child. The kits are generally to be reserved for very serious events when there is a strong likelihood that children will be stranded at school for an indeterminate period of time, and are meant to assist survival and provide comfort and distraction. Also we ask that you provide a three day supply of any critical medications that your child needs to take daily in case of such an emergency. For additional information about the emergency kits, click here.
Out of State Contact
We suggest also that each family have their own emergency contact plan, which includes and out of state contact number in case of major emergencies here. It is generally easier to call out of state than locally at such times. Such a plan requires that each family member use the out of state contact number to communicate their whereabouts and condition. That contact may be more able to easily relay information to others in your family, and to and from the school if necessary. It is helpful if we have that number as one of the emergency contacts for your child since it may also be easier for us to reach that person than it is for us to reach you.
Additional supplies of food, water and first aid materials are kept here.
All staff members are trained in First Aid, CPR and have taken a Blood Borne Pathogens – HIV/AIDS prevention course.