The safety of our students and staff is the number one priority for our Board of Education and our administrative team within the Indian Hill School District. We wanted to share with you some of our important safety protocols to provide you a more detailed understanding of how we put safety first.
Safety Communication Systems
Our District operates using a comprehensive crisis response plan when communicating with our stakeholders during emergency situations. We have an all-call phone system, School Messenger, that automatically calls parents and guardians in the event of an actual emergency. This is the same all-call phone system we use to announce school closures.
Emergency Situation
During an actual emergency, the district would enact our Crisis Response Team to coordinate logistics and communications. You could expect the following:
• Disseminate factual information to parents through phone calls via School Messenger.
• Update of District website to inform parents about what is known to have happened.
• Teachers report attendance to school office which is used to communicate attendance/accountability status to an established Incident Command.
• Implement plan to manage an influx phone calls and parents who arrive at school.
• Provide regular updates to media and school community.
• Establish a media site and reception area away from the school and any established Incident Command Post.
• Coordinate media communications with relevant community partners through a Joint Information Center, if established.
• Provide only information that has been approved to be released by the Incident Commander in charge of the scene.
• Monitor release of information and correct misinformation.
• Coordinate messages with the principal/senior leadership.
Non-emergency Situation
In non-emergency situations where information needs to be shared, all parents receive email communications from our mass-email system, Constant Contact. These communications can include but are not limited to, COVID updates, operational updates, planned school closures, and potential safety situation investigations.
Please note: The District is legally limited on what specific information can be shared in all of these situations, including when a potential safety situation has been investigated. We do not release personal identifiable information about students and staff due to FERPA and HIPPA laws. As always, we appreciate your understanding.
New Safety Measures
During the past nine months, we have designed entrances at every school with enhanced safety measures, using guidance from our Indian Hill Rangers and other professional school safety consultants. Some common features in our updated entrances include: locked vestibules, two-phase security entrances, and improved line of sight from offices to doors. We have an enhanced security camera system throughout our campus that allows us to monitor students, staff, and visitors at all times. This security camera system also can be accessed remotely by school officials and the Indian Hill Rangers.
As part of our added security the Indian Hill Rangers patrol our campuses and school parking lots frequently throughout the day.
New Transportation App
This semester, our Transportation Department deployed a new app called "Stopfinder" for our Indian Hill Primary School and Indian Hill Elementary School students. This allows families to check each student's bus schedule, bus number, and driver name. Parents/guardians can also receive alerts for real-time information on their child's bus location and receive notifications when a bus is delayed.
Staff and Visitor Badges
This school year we improved our identification practices. All adults in our buildings, including staff, visitors, contractors, must wear a visible ID badge. For visitors, we implemented an integrated school safety software that allows us to screen visitors and track visitors while they are in our schools, creating custom ID badges.
Safety Drills
The Indian Hill School District engages in regular drills, as required by the state, for fire, tornado, and safety. We complete these drills with our local partners like the Indian Hill Rangers and Indian Hill Fire Department. These are excellent opportunities to check our systems and prepare for emergencies.
Students at the center; safety as the number one priority. That is the way we do business, always. If you have any questions about the progress of our construction, we encourage you to visit our Building a Brave Future: Indian Hill Facilities Transition Resource, available at indianhillschools.org > Students & Parents.
In service to our children,
Kirk Koennecke
Superintendent
Indian Hill School District