Dear Blue Valley Parents,

I want you to know that I share your concern for the safety of your children in our schools at all times, but especially during these uncertain times. When the Homeland Security Threat Level was raised to "Orange" or high alert, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recommended that events not be canceled, and that individuals not change domestic, work or travel plans. Americans were urged to continue daily activities with a heightened awareness of their environment and activities occurring around them.

In keeping with that heightened sense of awareness, the Blue Valley School District has met with local emergency response agencies and will work in conjunction with them to carry out emergency plans if necessary. Our district staff and administration have revisited and reviewed the crisis plans in each of the schools. Maintaining a safe environment for our staff and students has been and will continue to be a top district priority.

What should parents do?
Should a situation arise, we ask that parents await direction from the district via any combination of voicemail messages, district Web site postings, and local radio and TV broadcasts.

What will the district do?
For several years the Blue Valley School District has maintained a disaster plan and kept general emergency response procedures in place. Each school also has a site-specific Crisis Response Plan. We routinely review these procedures with our district administrators and staff. All the best practices to respond to a wide variety of emergencies and/or disasters have been incorporated into our plans. Procedures such as Code red, Code red - lights out, Shelter-in-place, fire and tornado drills, as well as the Crisis Response Plans at the buildings, are all designed to address a full range of emergencies. The district makes an extra effort to communicate with all the appropriate emergency response agencies to ensure that our procedures are up-to-date and as effective as possible.

Many of you may not be familiar with the emergency response known as Shelter-in-place. This procedure is a short-term measure (minutes or hours, not days) designed to use a facility and its indoor atmosphere to temporarily separate people from a hazardous outdoor environment. The alternative would be to evacuate into a hazardous situation, thereby causing harm to all involved. On a routine basis, each of our school buildings has enough water and food in reserve to meet the needs of students and staff for several hours. Shelter-in-place is ended as soon as the outdoor air is safe. Consequently, if Shelter-in-place is in effect anywhere in the Blue Valley School District, parents should not come to the school until they have been notified that it is safe for students to be released. Parents should refer to local television and radio emergency broadcasts, as well as district voicemail and our Web site (www.bluevalleyk12.org) for instructions.

In addition to meeting the physical needs of students, the building Crisis Response teams are readily available to provide emotional support for our students and staff. The teams have met to discuss site-based actions and expectations. They have determined that at the elementary level it would not be appropriate for students to view television reports of any war or terrorist activity, such as the 9/11 attacks.

Our focus is on maintaining a safe academic environment in which our students can experience a successful school day. In the meantime, we will maintain our contact with local, state and federal law enforcement and emergency response agencies to ensure that our response is timely and appropriate should it become necessary in these uncertain times.

If you have questions about our safety and emergency procedures affecting your children, please contact your building principal or call the Director of Safety and Security, Dennis McCarthy, at 239-4007. We hope we will not face these types of emergency situations in our schools. However, I believe that being prepared is the key to an effective response.

Tom Trigg , Ed.D.
Superintendent