News

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Santa Barbara School Districts prepare for continued rain

If a community emergency were to occur during school hours, police or fire officials determine if a school should be closed. Parents are notified and children remain on campus until they are picked up. Parents count on our schools to provide a safe haven for their child until they can pick up their son or daughter.

In assessing potential or actual emergency situations, such as the storm our community is currently experiencing, the Santa Barbara School Districts’ most important focus is on student and community safety. During inclement weather, if a problem arises the districts’ director of facilities and operations and the school principal assess facilities to make sure that the school can be fully operational.

Before the school day begins, if a school principal or the districts’ facilities director feels that a facilities-related or access-related problem (e.g., flooding of roadways, creeks or other impediments) affects a school site, they would discuss the situation and identify possible solutions. If the only safe solution were to keep the school closed, the facilities director or the school principal would recommend to district-level administrators that school not be held that day. At that point, no matter the hour, they would notify district-level administrators of their concerns and their recommendation to keep the school closed. The final decision is made by the superintendent.

Once the decision is made to close a school, parents and staff are notified using an emergency call-out system, the media is alerted, and information is posted on the districts’ web site. We are also making plans to establish an emergency hotline.

During community emergencies, as demonstrated during recent fires when our schools were used as helicopter landing sites and Red Cross shelters, our schools stand ready to support our community. We are again prepared to serve as a Red Cross shelter if residents are displaced by the storm.

As we enter into a period of heavy rains and potential flooding, schools are often the safest place to be because, as an essential services structure (such as buildings that house police and fire), schools are constructed to a higher standard than most other structures. School districts also have a commitment to the state and community to keep schools open, unless prevented from doing so during an emergency, to deliver 180 days of instruction each year.