School District 43 is rolling out one of the largest updates to emergency preparedness in a decade, with new portable radios for each school, a communications plan, training and new manuals, The Tri-City News has learned.
Last week, assistant superintendent Rob Zambrano confirmed that every school in the district will get a radio for communicating in an emergency, with base stations located at the school board office and the maintenance building.
The contract with Turris Communications will cost $35,000 a year and will mean schools can communicate with each other and school board staff, even if the power and the internet goes down or cell service is jammed with calls.
“This is definitely a huge augmentation with the addition from the radios. But we also refreshed our command centre, [emergency] binders and we will be doing our procedures manual to bring it up to current standards and expectations,” Zambrano told The News.
In addition to an emergency command centre, now at Centennial secondary but later to be established at a new administration building once it is constructed, a school board liaison could work out of a municipal emergency operations centre if the need arises, and using the new radios, will be able to link municipal emergency, police and fire response with that of the school district.
“We realized that communication was key,” said Zambrano, noting that the radios also have texting capability and immediate connectivity to 9-1-1.
School staff will be trained to use the radios over the course of the year, and manuals will be distributed once they are printed.
As well, schools have been getting funds to top up their emergency supplies — up to $500 for each elementary school and $750 for each middle and secondary school, with enough funds to offer the subsidies every three years or so.
Board chair Kerri Palmer Isaak said the need to update emergency plans was viewed as a high-priority and addressed in recent months so each school can communicate and provide the necessary safety for students.
Drills will continue to be ongoing as well, so parents, students and teachers know what to do in an emergency, she said.
