Does Your School Have A Crisis Plan

Hi,

I hope that you and your family have had a great summer. Right now we’re winding up 2 weeks at our family cottage in Point Roberts, Washington. I’ve been cheating a bit coming back to my office to work; but our cabin is only 20 minute drive away (though it seems like another time and place…American wine does that!). I find it a great place to unwind; no TV, Internet, computers, or phone. It can be a bit a technology decompression, but I spend more time connecting with my family and friends (and swimming in the freezing ocean!!!). It’s also nice to relax from all the travel I’ve had to do this summer with trips to Korea; New Hampshire; Boston; Washington, DC; and now Panama.

As I read the latest news on H1N1 flu and its impact on schools, it reminds me of when I was Head of an International Girl’s Boarding School in Canada and had to deal with SARS. I was in Hong Kong recruiting students and fundraising at the time it broke out there, but no one knew it at the time. Two months later while I’m on holidays in California at Spring Break, SARS is beginning to spread around the globe and alarm bells are ringing. Over the next few months, the illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. However, since this was a new disease there was very little information available on how to deal with it at our school (with about two dozen students returning from Asia). I’m sipping wine in Napa and 800 miles away, and our school is preparing to receive our boarding students in the next 5 days. Yikes!!!

At this point we needed to switch in to our crisis plan. Fortunately, we’d prepared a flow chart for school response to any crisis (e.g., personnel, environmental, attack, illness), so we had a plan in place to deal with the situation. Does your school have a crisis plan ready for situations like the H1N1 flu outbreak?

Today I’m going to talk about how your school can develop your own crisis plan and how to proactively deal with emergency situations as they arise.

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President
Halladay Education Group Inc.

>> TWITTER: Get my updates by signing in @ www.twitter.com/halladay

P.S. Don’t forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. In The News

2. Useful Services

3. Do You Have A Crisis Plan?

4. Products At Our Online Store

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1. IN THE NEWS
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>> ENROLLMENT UP
The Newark Advocate; By SETH ROY • Advocate Reporter • August 27, 2009 NEWARK — Licking County private schools have seen their enrollments both rise and fall this year..


>> GREENWICH PUBLIC SCHOOLS BRACE FOR H1N1
Greenwich Time - Like private schools, the public schools are taking most cues from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that call for schools to stay open...


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2. USEFUL SERVICES
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(A) STARTING A SCHOOL

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(B) STRATEGIC PLANNING

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(C) BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS

Do you want your school to have the best board possible? Our full-day governance workshop (in combination with our interactive online survey) will fine-tune your board’s performance and focus priorities.

(D) SCHOOL EVALUATION

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3. DO YOU HAVE A CRISIS PLAN?
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Our local newspaper was filled with stories about H1N1. I know that newspapers need to write about bad news stories to sell papers, and the likelihood of getting the flu is 1 in a million, but do you have a plan if your school is the one?

Schools are encouraged to prepare a Crisis Management Plan with basic information about those situations that face schools. Most of these events are rare, but preplanning offers a thoughtful response during periods of stress. Annually updating your school’s Crisis Management Plan encourages discussion during non-pressured times and creates an even more useful resource. If kept in a notebook, new policies can be easily added yearly to make this a useful resource.

Your crisis plan should cover situations like:

• Abduction/Missing Person
• Assault/Battery
• Bomb Threat/Threatening Call
• Bus Accident
• Chemical/Hazardous Material
• Classroom accident
• Community Crisis
• Dangerous animal on campus
• Evacuation
• Field trip/student travel trip incident
• Fights
• Fire/Explosion
• Food Poisoning
• Gang Fight
• Grief/death
• Hostage Situation
• Kidnapping of child from campus
• Lockdown
• Natural Disaster/Weather Emergency
• National catastrophe
• Rape on Campus
• School Family Tragedy – death of child, parent, teacher
• Suicide
• Teacher Down or Incapacitated
• Toxic Waste/fumes
• Trespasser/Intruder
• Threats
• Utility/Energy Problem
• Vandalism
• Weapon on campus
  

When developing your plan you need to consider the following. Do you have the following in place:

• Crisis Response Coordinator?
• Crisis Response Team?
• Crisis Response Procedure Checklist?
• Directory of Contact Numbers?
• Backup Referrals and Resources?
• Color Code System?
• CODE RED STOP! Stay In Room/Shelter in Place
• CODE YELLOW CAUTION! Stay in School/Shelter in Place
• CODE GREEN GO! Evacuate school
• CODE BLUE LISTEN! Serious Situation
  
• General Administrative duties and Teacher duties?
• Grief/ Death Resources for the Classroom?
• Shelter-In-Place?
• Emergency Supplies?
• School Grounds and Buildings Diagram?
• Security plans?
• Post Communication after crisis
• Post Evaluation Form
• School Accident Report
  

Don’t wait for a crisis to happen to force you into developing a crisis plan; do it now at the beginning of the year with your staff and be prepared.

To find out more about our firm’s school services, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs.

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4. PRODUCTS AT OUR ONLINE STORE
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Here are 2 popular Toolkits that will help you to start and/or lead your school more effectively.

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(B). START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT (#2 BEST SELLER)

Are you still struggling with starting your school? Four experienced school leaders share with you how to start a school from the ground up. You’ll also receive our bonus CD on developing your own strategic plan.
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To your success,

Douglas Halladay
President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

P: 604.868.0002 / F: 868.472.8737 / Email: info@halladayeducationgroup.com

P.S. Do not forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school or non-profit.