Emergency Drills
To: Parents / Guardians
RE: Emergency Drills
The safety and welfare of our students and staff are our highest priority at Avenue City Elementary School. We practice safety drills throughout the year to help our students know what to do in an emergency. We complete fire, tornado, bus evacuation, earthquake, and intruder drills. We want you to be aware that Avenue City School has made many preparations to deal effectively with emergencies that could occur in or around the school while classes are in session. While we hope that a natural disaster or other serious incident never occurs, our goal is to be prepared for any potential emergency. At all times, our first priority is to protect all students and staff from harm.
The school district has and continues to work closely with local authorities to correctly implement these procedures. The goals of the training drills are to improve our ability to protect students, save lives, and reduce injuries. These practice drills allow us to evaluate our emergency operation plans and improve our response skills. In order for our emergency-response plans to be effective, we depend on the cooperation and assistance of many people, such as the police and the fire department. We also depend on you, as parents, to support our disaster-response efforts. Your cooperation is vital to helping us protect the safety and welfare of all children and school employees.
Therefore, we ask parents to observe the following procedures:
- Do not telephone the school. We understand and respect your concern, but it is essential that the telephone system be available for emergency communications.
- Tune to your local radio and/or television station for emergency announcements and status reports.
- You will also receive texts, emails, and/or calls from our district notification system. These receive instructions on where you should go and how/when, you may be able to pick up your child. In order to protect your child, students will only be released to parents and/or other adults listed on the emergency information sheet in the case of an actual emergency. Please be sure that this information is current and accurate. It is a good idea to have several trusted adults listed with the school.
- Do not come to the school until instructed to do so. It may be necessary to keep the streets and parking lot clear for emergency vehicles. If evacuation is required, students may be transported to a location away from the school. You will be notified of this through the media and/or district notification bulletins.
- Talk to your children and emphasize how important it is for them to follow instructions from their teachers and school officials during any emergency. Listen to your children’s concerns and assure them that the district is doing everything possible to make our school safe.
- Carefully read all information you receive from the school. You may receive updates about our safety procedures from time to time.
We are proud that Avenue City School is a safe school, and we are doing everything possible to keep it that way. We appreciate your cooperation and support. If you have any questions about this letter or other aspects of our safety procedures, please contact Superintendent Grimes at 816-662-2305.