Faculty introduced the school’s specifically adapted page on the emergency information app, Crisis Manager, on April 19 during an all-school assembly.
Science Teacher Wendy Van Norden and Upper School Attendance Coordinator Gabriel Preciado collaborated to create better emergency plans and add all the necessary information to the school’s page.
“The Crisis Manager app is our means of giving you mobile access to our crisis plan,” Preciado said.
Preciado and Van Norden worked with the app’s developer “SchoolDude” to generate a template for the information.
They later compiled essential disaster information including everything from emergency procedures and first aid techniques to building floor plans and field trip contact information.
Along with collecting past crisis plans, Preciado and Van Norden began to create the brand new “incident action plan,” with Van Norden assuming the role of Crisis Incident Commander in the event of an emergency.
Preciado will fill that position beginning next year.
They created faculty groups assigned to different areas of post-crisis support, including search and rescue, triage and taking care of the emergency supply bunkers.
Near the end of last year, the pair had the idea to upgrade the school’s emergency protocol and modernize the distribution method for that information.
“We had all these supplies for earthquakes and other emergencies but no one quite thought through how we use them,” Van Norden said
Although the app is in its primary stages, it shows potential for growth in applications and efficacy, Preciado said.
“Clearly it is still in its initial phases and we want to expand it more but at least it gives us something to work with,” Preciado said.
Along with emergency uses, the app also has other features, like a bullying information page, steps to take in the event of an allergic reaction and how to deal with a suspicious package.
The team hopes to diversify the uses to include utilities such as after school-hours emergency plans and field trip management.
The app is accessible by downloading it onto a mobile device, and then by adding the school’s ‘client page.’
Afterward, the data will be available even without an internet connection and the school is able to update it anytime.