Situation:

Chelsea Public Schools (CPS) in Massachusetts needed to update and align its emergency preparedness documents. Hagerty was asked to develop tools to assist principals and the faculty to prepare for and respond to an emergency incident.

Need:

Emergency preparedness plans for schools need to help students, faculty, and administrators be prepared for and respond to all sorts of disasters, including floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, intruders, and utility leaks. And just as each school has its own unique physical structure, location within a community, and student and administrative population, so to must emergency preparedness plans take into account those unique aspects when developing policies and procedures.

Solution:

Hagerty took a step-by-step approach to develop a series of tools for CPSD. First, Hagerty developed readiness guides for principals and faculty to use during a disaster. Next, Hagerty identified equipment to be stored in classrooms and with the principal to assist in emergency response, and held a workshop with CPSD to phase in these two concepts. Using the feedback received from the workshop, Hagerty developed an emergency operations plan (EOP) for Chelsea High School prior to developing an overall EOP for the entire district.

Outcome:

The workshop and EOP were very well received. A second workshop was developed to explain the fundamentals of a school EOP, as well as provide a “train the trainer” seminar to administrators so they can teach their faculty and staff what to do during an emergency.