Safety Calendar

Safety Calendar

Throughout the year, site administrators are asked to complete many tasks in order to prepare for emergencies.  Using information obtained during the interview with your mentor principal, create an example of an annotated yearlong calendar outlining scheduled tasks regarding safety.

The following must be included:

Monthly fire drills:  All fire drills must be held at varied times. You will need to explain why different times are chosen (Ex:  Monday, September 2 at 11:55 a.m. Evacuation will be from the café as the seventh and eighth grades will be at lunch. In addition, the doors in Hall 1 will be blocked so the second grade will have to take an alternate path).

Quarterly lockdown drills:  Each drill must be a different simulated situation at a different time. (Ex:  October 3 at 2:00 p.m. a parent walks into the front office demanding to see their child. The parent tells the secretary at the desk they are armed).

A full school evacuation:  Provisions should be made for how busses will be loaded. Where will the reunification point be? How will parents be notified?

Training for teacher:  This should not be limited to one session at the beginning of the year.

A process for revisiting/debriefing after drills:  Who will be involved? What will the process be? How will the debriefing/adjustments/positives be shared with the staff?

Rationale for the choices made in developing the safety calendar, such as:

1. Was it collaborative?
2. Was the school’s vision and mission upheld?
3. Were there any legal and moral consequences of the decisions made in connection with the calendar and safety drills?
4. Explanation for altering times.
5. Procedures for notifying parents in the event they are on campus.

Part 2:  Case Study

You are the principal of Sunset Hills, a K-8 school with an 800-student population. It is an April mid-morning in Arizona, where the outside temperature has reached a staggering 102 degrees. While visiting classrooms in the campus’ main building, you begin to notice the classrooms seem to be getting warmer and warmer. At noon you are notified by the plant foreman that the chillers in the building are down. As you continue to walk through classrooms, you observe students sweating and trying to cool down waving their papers as fans.

School does not end until 3:45 p.m.

In a 500-750-word analysis, and keeping the district, parents, students, teachers, and the media in mind, address the following:

1. Management and Operational Systems
   • Identify the main decisions that must be made.
   • Identify additional information needed to inform your decisions.
2. Human, Fiscal, and Technological Resources
   • Organize staff to ensure the safety of students and consistency of responses.
   • Identify additional resources needed to ensure the safety of students and staff.
3. Safety and Welfare of Students and Staff
   • Identify legal rulings to consider in making a decision.
   • Identify district policy that might effect a decision.
4. Collaborate with Faculty and Community
   • Identify possible stakeholders involved in the decision-making and/or affected by the recommended solution.
5. Rationale
   • Provide a rationale for your proposed solution. Include how the solution might support success for all students, support the mission and vision of the school, and safety, democracy, and equity for students and staff.
   • Identify possible solutions to the case and provide reasoning for your solution.
   • Identify the priority of possible action steps.

Identify a timeline to implement the recommended action steps.

Cite 2-3 scholarly resources to support your analysis.

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

Rewrite

Part 1: Safety Calendar

Rational

Collaboration

            I worked with my principal mentor and our school’s resource officer. In working with the calendar, I realized that many more things needed to be written in. Events are added throughout the year and changed by various stakeholders.

Vision and Mission

            Our school’s vision and mission are to develop successful leaders for the 21^st century. Our goals are for students to graduate to become productive members of society in whatever they choose to do. Our calendar keeps all stakeholders on task as we reach toward accomplishing out school’s vision and mission.

Legal and Moral Consequences

            Lockdowns, fire drills, and evacuations have legal and moral consequences. We have to endure that each and having drills enables us to practice and perfect safety procedures. We need to notify our local fire department when we are having a fire drill and local police when we are having a lockdown.

Explanation of Altering Times

            It is imperative for us to alter times for drills and lockdowns. Emergencies do not happen at the same time or day. We have to be prepared in all situations. We want students and staff to take these drills seriously and not see drills, evacuations, and lockdowns as something that we are doing this day and time.

Procedures for Notifying Parents

            We use Connect Ed as a way to contact parents. Parents are supposed to be notified of fire drills, lockdowns, emergency evacuations, and all other emergencies on the day that they occur. Parents are given emergency contact cards each semester to update contact and emergency information.

Part II

Case Study

Management and Operational Systems

As a principal leader, I am charged with making many decisions. The main decision that I need to make is do I need to contact the superintendent about closing our school until the air conditioning unit is repaired or replaced? Another decision that should be made is:  Do we need to relocate students and staff to another location? Information needed to inform my decisions are how long will it take to repair or replace the air conditioning unit? How hot is the current temperature and how hot is the temperature expected to get? How are staff and students being affected by the heat?

Human, Fiscal, and Technological Resources

            Students and staff in the warmest areas of the building will be relocated to the coolest place in the building. Administrative staff would check in on classes and deliver ice water. Students and staff would be encouraged to keep hydrated. I would use funds to have my custodians to purchase fans. All outdoor and indoor recess would be canceled to limit movement.

Safety and Welfare of Students and Staff

As an administrator, I need to ensure the welfare and safety of students and staff. Students cannot adequately learn and teachers teach in an environment not conducive to learning. We need to keep in mind staff and students may have illnesses that can be exacerbated by heat. When the body is too hot or too cold, the brain constantly sends a message to the body to “do something” to correct the situation (Dunn 1990). Learning will not take place. Condensation can also form on the floors causing floors to become slippery. To combat slippery floors, I would ask custodians to line the floors with bulletin board paper for safety. There were no legalities in my district in terms air conditioners being in ill repair, but we as leaders have a moral obligation to remain in continuous contact with maintenance and keep staff and students abreast of the situation. And ensure the safety of all staff and students.

Collaborate with Faculty and Community

Collaboration needs to take place with teachers, students, and the community. As a principal leader, I need to be in constant contact with our superintendent, and maintenance department to see where they are with the repair. I need to provide consistent updates to teachers and students on the repair status.  I would send a Connect Ed to parents informing them that the air conditioner is in ill repair and is in the process of being fixed. I would also let them know that there is a possibility that students will be dismissed early due to high temperatures.

Rationale

            The state of Arizona is known to be one of the hottest states in the United States. Through studies, we know that our brains tend to not retain information in temperatures that are too hot or too cold. The two most important individual building elements found to affect student achievement were temperature control and air quality (Earthman, 2004). Some of our staff and students come to us with health ensures that are reactive to heat.  As a principal leader, I need to work to provide a work and learning environment that supports our school’s vision and mission by providing an environment conducive to learning and also by providing a school that promotes safety. A proposed solution is to dismiss the school for the remainder of the day and to keep in constant contact with maintenance on the status of the repair. Replacement parts will need to be ordered and replaced which will take time. Action steps that I would take are to contact the superintendent and enquire about dismissing the students early due to a lack of air. Once I got the okay to dismiss early, I would have a member of administration call parents through Connect Ed to let them know that the air conditioning has failed and that we are in the process of having it repaired. Connect Ed. would also let them know that we are going to dismiss early. I would then call busses to come and pick up students. While students are waiting, I would relocate classes to a cooler part of the building with the help of support staff. My decision was made, because the school environment while the air conditioner is out of order, is not favorable for learning.