Safety Calendar

Donna Meda

Grand Canyon University: EAD 536

September 22nd, 2021


Monthly Fire Drills
Thursday, August 19th at 8:20AM
Monday, September 20th at 9:30AM
Friday, October 15th at 11:30PM
Tuesday, November 16th at 2:40PM
Wednesday, December 15th at 1:15PM
Tuesday, January 25th at 9:00AM
Thursday, February 24th at 11:50AM
Friday, March 25th at 7:45AM
Tuesday, April 19th at 9:50AM
Monday, May 16th at 10:30AM
Safety Calendar
Evacuation will be five minutes after the beginning
of 2nd period. Teachers and students will follow the
procedures as stated on their emergency packet.
Evacuation will be during 3rd period. 4th and 5th grade
students will be in elective classes and must know the
procedures exiting the campus from those
classrooms.
Evacuation will happen while Kindergarten, 1st, and
2nd grade students are in lunch at the multipurpose
room. They must follow the multipurpose fire drill
procedures for evacuation from this building to the
east field of the campus. The west gate is locked, so
teachers must act fast to get students out through that
door.
Evacuation will be during the last period of the day, 2
minutes away from dismissal. All students on the east
side of campus must exist through the east gate in a
timely manner safely. Parents will be parked waiting
for student dismissal. Students and teachers must
walk without distractions.
Evacuation will be during 6th period. Middle school
students will be transitioning across campus to their
next class. Teachers must adjust to direct students to
safety.
Evacuation will be during the middle of 2nd period.
The east gate will be blocked, directing teachers and
students to an alternative exiting door. Teachers must
act fast to identify another route.
Evacuation will happen just before lunchtime for 3rd-
5th grade students. Kindergarten students will be in
recess. Teachers in recess duty must directs students
to safety.
Evacuation will happen as students arrive to school.
Students will be evacuated as they arrive.
Evacuation will happen during recess time for lower
elementary students. Teachers must direct students to
safety.
Evacuation will happen during 4th period. Students
and teachers will evacuate using their emergency
procedures for fire drills.
Quarterly lockdown drills

Wednesday, September 8th at 10:00AM Simulation: Active shooter on campus drill.

Wednesday, November 3rd at 2:00PM
Tuesday, February 8th at 11:00AM
Thursday, April 7th at 10:35AM
Simulation: There’s an angry parent at the front
office confronting the principal telling her that he is
armed.
Simulation: An armed robbery is happening at the
bank just around the corner from the school.
Simulation: During recess, one student tells their
teacher that another student has a gun in his
backpack.

One Full School Evacuation

At the beginning of the full school evacuation, teachers will send out student headcount

to our secretaries. Our secretaries will be in charge of notifying parents about what is going on at

school and where to pick up their children through our school’s phone notification system. They

will also be in charge of arranging buses to be ready at our reunification spot. Teachers will keep

students walking fast exiting campus to Greenbrian Rd. sidewalk. Teachers will walk with their

students in line one mile down the road to our reunification point which is Peace Lutheran

Church parking lot where buses will be waiting to take bus students home.

Before dismissing students, teachers will send out final headcount to our secretaries.

Secretaries will ensure all students are safe and sound at the church’s parking lot before

dismissing. All teachers will be accounted for their students as they are taken on the bus and

picked up by parents.

Training for teachers:

There will be a scheduled training meeting about drills and safety procedures at the

beginning of the school year for all teachers and other staff members given by the school’s safety
leader. At my school, we have Mr. J who is our district leader in change of safety. Teachers will

be responsible of sharing information and practicing with their students. The agenda will include

going over the safety procedures for every emergency situation possible. For lock downs, all

teachers must have an emergency bucket in their classroom with snacks, drinks, large bags, and

toilet paper for students to use, if necessary. This will also be shared with teachers during the

training. The principal (myself in this case), vice principal, all teachers, and secretaries will

attend the meeting to ensure everyone at school knows the proper procedures. Teachers will be

reminded about these procedures during their grade-level team meetings.

Revisiting/Debriefing After Each Drill

The principal and vice principal will call all teachers for an immediate staff meeting after

school to revisit and debrief the drill that occurred on that specific day. Whether the drill was a

successful drill or not, the principal will share things that went well and improvements for next

time. For every single thing mentioned, teachers will have the opportunity to explain why those

things happened and ideas on how to improve for next time. They will also share how it went in

their classrooms that the principal might’ve missed and explain why they had a positive or

negative experience and how they are planning to improve for next time. It would be a good idea

to have them meet in their grade-level teams to have them discuss the different routes they took

and why it worked for them or not.

Rationale

If all schools or district counts with a safety leader or officer like my school does, then

that person would be responsible of scheduling and meeting with the school’s principals to plan

the safety calendar for the school sometime during the summer before the new school year
started. They would also be in charge of gathering all information and preparing training sessions

for all staff members. First, he would meet with the principals and secretaries to train them on

what goes in the emergency/safety folders for teachers, how to organize them, and what to have

ready for teachers. Then, secretaries at each school site would create the folders and have them

ready before the staff training on each campus. During the training, the safety leader would be

the facilitator and his responsibility would be to communicate with principal to ensure all staff is

present. This meeting is mandatory! Secretaries would hand out folders to teachers. All folders

will have the same procedures. The only thing that is different would be the evacuation maps

since each grade and teacher has their own classroom and specific responsibilities of the teacher

if applicable. Everything else is the same. The safety leader would go over each part of the folder

including drill information and procedures to safety. Vice principal will be in charge of passing

emergency buckets to teachers and ensuring everyone has what they need in case of an

emergency. The calendar will not be shared with teachers to ensure we get more genuine

evacuation results. The safety of our students is the responsibility of all stakeholders!

The school’s vision and mission allow for the safety calendar and safety procedures to be

a top priority for the school. We want all students to be successful and caring citizens, so for that

to occur, we must ensure that the safety plan is followed and goes into effect immediately by all

staff members for all students to be safe. We want to provide all students with the safest

education possible.

When planning the evacuation procedures for each situation, we had to consider the

moral and legal aspects when communicating with teachers, students, and parents. For some

situations, the teachers will have to rethink the routes towards safety since their usual routes were

blocked. Students would be redirected from learning to safety mode. When communicating with
parents during the full evacuation, we determined it was necessary to call parents to be aware

immediately and be available to pick up their children on time. Now, the safety calendar doesn’t

ensure it’ll be followed faithfully since other things can arise, but as the principal, I would try my

best to ensure the safety of our students according to our school’s vision and mission. Drills are

just for practice, it doesn’t mean the actual situations will ever happen, but preparation is

necessary. When creating the calendar, we made sure that the fire drills happened about a month

from each other and during different times of the day allowing all students and teachers to

practice and see how it would really look like for them. We didn’t want to interrupt any tests

with any drills, so we made sure not to schedule anything during those testing days, but it could

happen during those days. Just in case, it would be the same procedure as if they were in class. If

any visitors were to be on campus, they must also act fast according to the procedures in place.

They must be signed in into the school system to be accounted for and for the safety of all

students.