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District reviews safety drills, installs classroom blinds and pilots energy monitoring to lower costs
Summary
Board heard that the district ran evacuation and reunification drills, installed about 220 classroom blinds to create non-visible sheltering areas, and is piloting energy-management systems to reduce peak electric demand.
The district administrator and operations staff reported safety and facilities activities to the board on Aug. 4.
The district ran a practice evacuation and parent reunification drill led by safety coordinator Mike Clements, with police and district staff participating, to rehearse off-site and internal reunification procedures. The administrator described participating in the exercise as a parent and said it tested procedures for reuniting parents with students in a range of emergency scenarios.
The district also has installed roughly 220 classroom blinds to "make sure that there is a spot in each room that is not visible, in the event of emergency," the administrator said, explaining that the district balances natural light with the need for at least one non-visible spot per classroom for safety reasons.
On facilities and energy use, business manager Jeff Mahoney discussed a pilot with a vendor identified as Data Wrangler to monitor usage and reduce peak electric demand. "So we're spending a little money to save a lot of money," Mahoney said, describing automated adjustments (for example, taking an outdoor-air system out of occupied mode after school hours) that have already reduced demand charges in the piloted facility. He credited staff member Ben Snyder with researching the approach. Mahoney said the district expects a full-year result to report in November.
The business manager also noted progress on capital projects: gym renovation work is expected to be complete this week if weather permits, and the district continues to plan use of one-time funds and ESSER balances for capital and other projects.
These items were reported for information; the meeting included no formal vote on safety protocol changes or energy contracts during the open session.
