STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Sharon Public Schools (the district) considers the safety and security of those in our buildings a top priority. We work closely with our town Police, Fire, and Health Departments to review all our prevention and preparedness plans. The district plan sets the training standard based on an understanding of the National Incident Management System IS-700.A (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) 100sa.
Each of our schools and our district as a whole have a Crisis Response Team consisting of building administrators, and trained mental health professionals. Our plans are reviewed annually and reflect current best practices for school response to incidents.
TRAINING
Each school has an Emergency Response Plan with information on how to respond to a variety of situations. Staff and students in all schools practice these emergency procedures and protocols regularly. As is done for all safety drills, the practice is tailored to grade levels, using developmentally appropriate language and discussion topics.
In addition to annual fire and evacuation drills our district employees are trained using A.L.I.C.E protocols.
COMMUNICATION
Our district utilizes Swift Reach, RAVE, walkie-talkies, telephones, and building public address systems for internal and external communications. All district phones and classroom phones can call 911 directly.
In order to ensure timely and accurate information gets to the people who most need it we ask all families to understand the following:
*We will make every effort to inform our community when situations arise. Understand that communication will be based on what is happening and how available communication tools are.
*To ensure you receive our updates, via our messaging system Swiftreach, please make sure to update all your contact information and emergency contact information annually.
* During an emergency we need to keep our phone lines open and we may not be answering the phone. It is not appropriate to call and ask for updates. All updates will be sent out to the whole community and details will not be provided via individual phone calls or emails.
TERMINOLOGY
SRO: School Resource Officer is a Sharon Police Officer who has undergone NASRO training. Our SRO is located in the high school but works to support all our buildings and their students.
Lockdown: Lockdown Procedures may be used in situations involving dangerous intruders or other incidents that may result in harm to persons inside a school building.
Shelter in Place: Sheltering in Place is a short-term safety procedure that will help protect staff, students and visitors. Shelter in Place depends on the risk posed to the school, staff, students and visitors. Reasons to shelter in place include, but are not limited to a chemical spill, brush fire, airborne contaminants, or to assess a situation. Shelter In Place can be used in the event of maintaining order to search a school or for eliminating activity in corridors.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH
Our district understands that a large part of safety and security is a sense of connection and belonging in one’s community. Our district employs several licensed social workers, school adjustment counselors, school guidance counselors, and school nurses. These employees all serve on building or district crisis response teams.
The district maintains a list of mental health and human service resources for the community: Sharon Local Resources and Support
BUILDINGS
Our buildings are locked at all times. Access to the building may be gained through the main doors during publicized school hours. All persons will need to present a valid ID to gain entrance. Our District uses Ident-a-kid as our Visitor Management System.