Stillwater Area Public Schools Puts Strong Focus on Emergency Preparedness

In addition to hosting a district-wide staff development day on Monday, April 22, Stillwater Area Public Schools also paused to focus on emergency planning and response. Many front office staff members attended a two hour workshop with Dr. Sonayia Shepherd, a thought leader and emergency preparedness expert from Safe Havens International. Dr. Shepherd delivered a content rich, interactive and interesting training session which included important information about roles and responsibilities for visitor screening, bomb threat procedures, implementation of emergency functional protocols, and more. While Dr. Shepherd presented to front-office staff, her colleague Russell Bentley met with building custodians to discuss conducting a hazard and vulnerability assessment, gravity hazards and more.

Later that same day, the district hosted a functional emergency exercise in which over 60 district employees participated along with representatives from local police and fire departments. The purpose of the exercise was to test the district’s systems and processes in place for responding to an emergency and gather key takeaways for improvement. The crisis was entirely simulated, but staff practiced responding as they would had it been real.  Exercising emergency response is imperative the safety of everyone at Stillwater Area Public Schools.

“Activities like Monday’s exercise will happen on a consistent basis to keep staff sharp and continue to improve existing protocol,” said Dennis Bloom, Stillwater Area Public Schools Director of Operations, “I also want to extend a huge thanks to all who participated in the exercise, we really value the time and energy you contributed.”