Dear Great Falls School Families,

 

The safety of your children is our priority. We take safety procedures and protocols very seriously at Great Falls and we work diligently to ensure that our staff and students are well prepared in case of an emergency. We hold regularly scheduled safety drills, including fire drills, playground drills, and emergency drills. Following each drill, the building staff evaluates the effectiveness of the drill to determine if any adjustments need to be made to ensure preparedness.

Last year we adopted some changes to the District’s emergency management plan, specifically implementing a safety program called ALICE. ALICE is a research-based, proactive, options-based, empowering program for responding to a dangerous incident. ALICE is an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.  With regard to classroom messaging to students, as with years past we continue to keep this information developmentally appropriate and low-key.  Students know that we regularly conduct emergency lessons for everyone’s safety; including evacuations during a Fire Alarm and locking down during a Lockdown Alert.

 

For our children, the biggest shift is there is no longer only one response during a Lockdown (moving to a predetermined safe spot in the classroom and staying there).  Instead, they now focus on the teacher for specific directions that may include the ‘shelter in place’ option or any number of other responses depending on the situation.  Our staff are all trained to respond in a variety of ways, making the decision that will best ensure the safety of the students in their care.  In order for these actions to be met with success, our students are being coached to stop, look, listen, and follow directions without questions in these variable situations.

 

Our first emergency lesson using ALICE protocols is scheduled this week and next.  In this lesson the teacher will lead a discussion on what it means to be safe at school, read the book I’m Not Scared, I’m Prepared: I know About ALICE to the class, and highlight that the procedures during an emergency are to stop, look, listen and follow teacher directions without question.

 

We will continue to conduct lessons throughout the remainder of the year, but as this is the first school-wide emergency lesson with students present, I wanted to let you know in advance. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime with questions.

 

Sincerely,

Becky Fortier

Great Falls Principal