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The Client and Its Challenge
With more than $1.4 billion in yearly expenditures, this large, midwestern school district is divided into geographically defined constellations. Each constellation has administration responsibility for the elementary, middle, and high schools located within its boundaries, which include regular, special education, vocational/technical and alternative programs. The district has 275 schools, more than 183,000 students and more than 10,000 teachers.
Like all public school districts, the client faced the challenge of providing a safe and secure learning environment for its students, its staff and visitors to its facilities. Not only did the public school district face "normal" incidents — such as fires and tornadoes — but also technological and manmade disasters, including student violence and the threat of terrorism. The school district's administrators were concerned about whether the current emergency response plans would hold up under the new threats. They also had questions regarding how well these same plans were integrated with local, state, and federal emergency response agencies.
The Risk Consulting Solution
Marsh’s Risk Consulting practice provided the following services in a multi-phase approach to this public school system:
- A review of its current policies, procedures, and protocols relating to security and emergency response planning, including in-house security staffing
- A security/safety assessment of all facilities within the school district
- The development of a critical incident prevention program for each facility
- The integration of local, state, and federal emergency response agencies into the district’s emergency response plans
- The development and implementation of security and safety training for all departments (transportation, facilities, staff, security, and teachers)
- A gap analysis to identify the school district’s current state of preparedness and compare it to best practices within the industry
Results
The benefits of the comprehensive security and emergency management program improved the school district’s capabilities to manage emergencies and catastrophic events. The following accomplishments illustrate the results of teamwork and reaching the goal of enhancing the quality of life for the school district and the community.
1. The enhancement of the district’s security and emergency response procedures and protocols, including student tracking, violence in the schools, facility access and egress, student travel, and special events.
2. The Incident Command System (ICS) was incorporated in the school district’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). This proactive emergency management process delivered an organized approach to managing emergencies and built a cohesive partnership between the district and emergency responders.
3. A district-wide EOP was developed and rolled out to school administrators and crisis intervention teams (CITs) at every school and district facility. The EOP enables the CITs to effectively respond to emergencies in order to quickly stabilize and terminate an incident. Included in the EOP is the information the CITs need to take the proper steps to protect the occupants of the school/facility and minimize the loss of property damage.
4. An emergency and safety procedures guide was developed and provided to every school teacher and staff member throughout the district. This flipchart contains vital emergency information in a concise format that provides the reader with the knowledge they need when notifying emergency responders, taking corrective actions and finally evacuating to a lockdown in a safe assembly area
5. A comprehensive training program was established for administrators, faculty, staff and students. The training program provided vital fire/life safety and crime prevention techniques to school occupants and advanced emergency management training for the CITs and leaders of the school district.
6. Table-top exercises were developed to test the school district’s EOP. These real life scenarios provided the CITs with multiple issues where they needed to take action quickly. The results of the exercises identified gaps in the current EOP and prepared teams for future incidents.
7. Based on security assessments conducted by Marsh risk consultants the school district upgraded its security hardware to ensure safer schools and campuses.
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact us.
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