Plains school staff tests emergency procedures

Plains School staff members spent last Thursday practicing new emergency procedures.

With the help of an ESSER funding grant, Plains Public School has purchased an app called Emergent 3. The app, designed with public education in mind, provides instant notifications to each computer and staff members phones of any type of emergency ranging from fire, earthquakes, intruder/violent behavior and building evacuations. 

The Emergent 3 app allows staff members to manage any emergency the school may encounter. It also includes interactive maps of the interior and exterior of the school and allows immediate communication with law enforcement.

Staff members assembled in the school cafeteria where each received instructions on the use of the new app from elementary principal Kevin Meredith. Meredith said the system still has a few bugs, but he hopes to have them all worked out for the start of school. He said several workstations and staff phones were not receiving the notifications. 

Each classroom has had monitors installed that also show any alerts. Meredith said that the Clark Fork Valley Hospital is using the same system for emergency procedures. 

“The goal for today’s training, we want to make sure if an event really happened, we would know how to react,” Meredith said. 

If an alert has been activated each teacher is required to report back if they and their students are safe, and their current location.

The afternoon started out with four practice lockdown drills followed by a full-scale evacuation of all personnel. In an actual evacuation, all staff and students would be evacuated to the Forest Service facility behind the school. When an emergency alert has been issued, local and county law enforcement personnel will be dispatched to render assistance where necessary.

During the evacuation drill to the Forest Service location Meredith said, “Everybody seemed to know where they are going and got over there very quickly.” 

It took about five minutes for everyone to assemble at the Forest Service location. The evacuation drill has been practiced about once each year, but it has been around five years since the students participated.

When all staff and students have been evaluated, in a real emergency, the Forest Service’s facility will be the location where family and students will be reunited. At the end of a real emergency a clear notice would be sent out that the threat has ended.

Thursday’s drill counts as one day’s training for the seven-day PIR Day (Public Instruction Related) requirement for each teacher each year.

Meredith said, “The more you drill the better the response.”

Plains School district has a new music teacher for the 2024-2025 school year. Rhiannon Greenwood is a Plains school graduate.

    Local law enforcement officers Brian Josephson and Rob Geenen take part in the Plains School evacuation drill. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)