HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-10-19-BRIDGE-min BRIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
SCHOOL-BASED SITE COUNCIL
55 Middleby Road, Lexington, MA 02421
781-861-2510
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018 MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED DECEMBER 21, 2018
PRESENT: Meg Colella, Tiffany Crooker, Erin Cerat,Jon Cunha, Kristen Gray, Kimberly
Hensle Lowrance, Ruth Litchfield,Amy Kvaal, Zeba McGibbon, Sejal Petal, Deirdre Schadler,
Kira Sevene, Melanie Tanionos, and Maria Totniou.
ABSENT: Lynnette Allen,Amelia Brower, Lucia Brower, Megan Brown,Allison Gullingsrud,
Huan Liu, Beth Murnaghan, Debbie Side, and Shawn Wood.
The Bridge Elementary School School-Based Site Council held its monthly meeting on
October 19, 2018 at 8 AM in the Bridge School Library.
Meg Colella opened the meeting with an introduction to the safety training Bridge staff are
in the process of undergoing. (See more information in her November newsletter:
https://www.smore.com/2spyc.) The training is called ALICE and stands for Alert,
Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate (see https://www.alicetraining.com/).ALICE
"provides preparation and a plan for individuals and organizations on how to more
proactively handle the threat of an aggressive intruder or active shooter event." Meg
explains that it is designed to give staff the tools to know how to respond to an emergency.
The current focus for LPS is to roll out consistent emergency preparedness to all staff, as
there are differences between how the schools have addressed this issue.
Before ALICE, staff would be instructed to go on lockdown during emergency.With ALICE,
staff are empowered with five non-sequential options that can be used to increase their
chances of surviving a surprise attack by a dangerous person. Research has shown that, in a
violent critical incident, having multiple options helps increase survival rates. Such
incidents typically last for under five minutes, so giving staff options and going through a
number of trainings with them will help them be more prepared. Staff will have a scenario-
based training on November 8 with the Lexington Police to act out what would happen if
there were an intruder in the building.This type of overview was last offered in 2014.
Meg, a certified ALICE trainer, described the steps of ALICE as follows:
• Alert-tell people, as clearly as possible,what's happening
• Lockdown - people stay in room that they're in and barricade themselves in, making
sure there is heavier furniture by the door to block the entrance
• Inform -tell people in building what's going on and call 911
• Counter-this is a last resort, it's what to do if an intruder makes it in the room (for
example: throwing objects at the intruder)
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• Evacuate- get out of building, not telling the students to go to a particular place,
rather telling them to get out and get as far away as possible (vs. gas leak or fire
when kids would evacuate together and meet at one location)
ALICE has widespread support from public safety organizations.
Attendees watched a video about Waltham, MA School System's safety program; see the
recording at https://www.alicetraining.com/resources-posts/featured-videos/waltham-
public-schools/.
Parents asked a number of questions, including do students understand that there are
different responses to different situations? Meg explained that the students are being
taught that in an emergency they need to be quiet,they need to evacuate,they need to stay
with their class, etc. Students also regularly participate in fire drills, and the superintendent
is looking into doing a district-wide evacuation training,which would call for Bridge
students to walk all the way to the high school.All of this is necessary preparation for any
type of emergency. She added that she's emphasized to her staff that you don't know who
the intruder might be—for example, it could be a former student, a parent, etc.—therefore,
it's critical that everyone is observant and prepared.
Parents asked about breaking windows to get out of building, how to manage windows
along doors (there's been discussion about replacing them but it's not gone anywhere), and
other steps needed to evacuate.
Wilmington, MA has rolled out ALICE to its entire student body. There are no plans to roll
out ALICE to LPS students,though there is a district-wide committee examining this issue.
Meg Colella and Kristen Gray are the Bridge representatives on the committee. The
committee is looking at the pros and cons of rolling it out here in Lexington, including
whether to implement ALICE in all schools, or just in middle and high schools. More will
come from the committee in the next few months.
The topic for our next meeting on Friday, November 30 at 8 AM in the Bridge School
Library will be the LPS Homework Policy. The meeting concluded at 8:30 AM.
Additional upcoming meetings are scheduled for December 21,January 25, March 1,April 26,
May 24, and a TBD June date (based on the last day of school).
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Contact Meg Colella, Principal and Co-Chair
(mcolellaPlexingtonma.org), or Kimberly Hensle Lowrance, Parent Representative and Co-
Chair(khensle gmaiLcom); or visit https://Ips.lexingtonma.org/domain/481
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