Smithville School District -

Smithville takes steps every day to protect students and staff. Our crisis response plan includes strategies to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from a crisis in our schools.

The Smithville School District Emergency Plan is a comprehensive guide developed to protect the lives of students and staff. The district has measures in place to ensure our students' safety before, during, and after a crisis situation. We view a crisis as an incident that directly or indirectly affects a few or all of our students and staff. A crisis can occur before, during or after regular hours. Our plan is designed to be effective in a number of situations.

1. Please make sure your contact information (home and cell phone numbers) are up-to-date in our Student Information System. You can change that information through the Parent Portal. Once you've logged in, go to Forms - Enrollment - Guardian Information Update. During an emergency, we will call both home and cell numbers.

2. Please make sure the emergency contacts on file for your student are up-to-date (this can also be updated in the Parent Portal) and we would suggest that those emergency contacts be local so that they can respond and pick up your student if necessary. Older siblings that drive may be listed as emergency contacts.

3. We will use SchoolMessenger, the district's automated calling system, social media, and the district website to communicate with parents during a crisis.

a. A tip - if you miss part of the SchoolMessenger automated call, you can always press "*" and the message will be played again.

b. You can follow Smithville Schools: Twitter - @SmithvilleSD, Facebook - @smithvilleschooldistrict, Instagram - smithvillesd

4. In some cases, we may need to evacuate the school. Evacuation sites have been established, but we do not publicize those locations prior to an emergency to maintain student safety. We will inform you of the time and place to pick up your child through the district communication channels.

5. During the reunification at the evacuation site, parents will be asked to remain in their cars and proceed through the line. Only parents or those listed as emergency contacts will be allowed to pick up a student. All parents and emergency contacts will be required to provide identification in order to pick up a student. This process could take a lot of time and your patience would be required.

6. In an emergency, we ask parents not to come to or call the school. It is important to keep the streets, parking area, and phone lines open for emergency responders and communication. We will provide information to parents through the district communication channels (see #3 above).

7. If your child has a medical condition, please make sure to have two sets of necessary items (medication/testers/etc) available (one with you or at home) in case we cannot re-enter the school to retrieve them.

8. During a lockdown at school, no one will be permitted to enter or leave the building with the exception of district personnel, law enforcement, and first responders. Once it has been determined that the threat has passed (all-clear), the school will resume normal procedures. This also applies to weather-related lockdowns.