By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
At Monday’s meeting, the Hays USD 489 school board considered changes to language in its administrative handbook on emergency drills and parent notification in case of emergencies.
The board sent the handbook back to administration asking language be included that specifically says the administration will notify parents in any incident that involves student safety.
The proposed language included increasing the number of emergency drills from one a year to two, which is consistent with the district’s current policy. This includes active shooter drills, Superintendent John Thissen said.
Thissen noted he expected the state to this year or next increase the number of required emergency drills. The state currently requires tornado and fire drills, but does not require emergency drills.
Thissen said he thought it was important to let the community know when evacuation drills or lockdown drills are taking place so individuals don’t misunderstand the nature of the event and become alarmed.
The proposed language said the administration would notify parents through the district emergency notification system of planned and unplanned drills. This could be in the form of email, text or a phone call. The policy goes on to state parents will be notified in “for any other notifications deemed necessary.”
Board member Greg Schwartz said he specifically would like that section to state parents will be notified in any instance involving student safety.
The concern over notification of parents stems from a student threat in February. A student at the high school made a verbal threat against the school, was removed from school and placed in state custody.
Parents were not notified of the threat until five days after the student was removed from school and rumors swirled about a gun at the school. Between the time of the threat and the parent notification, there was a mass shooting at a Florida high school. Some parents were so concerned about rumors of violence at the school they kept students at home.
The school board and Thissen both acknowledged the parents should have been notified sooner about the student threat at HHS.
Thissen said he was willing to make changes. He said he thought he and board shared the same intent, it is just a matter of changing the wording in the policy.
Thissen said he would take recommendations from board members about further revisions to the notification policy and would bring it back to board at its next meeting on April 30.