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Board continues work on proposed resolution to reduce lockdown drills; drafts to be submitted to association
Summary
Trustees reviewed a proposed district resolution seeking to reduce required lockdown drills from four to two annually and debated whether unplanned drills should count; the board directed a member to draft text for submission to the regional association's annual meeting.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The Binghamton City School District Board on Oct. 15 continued discussion of a proposed resolution — referenced in the meeting as the "Miska" resolution — to reduce mandated lockdown drills from four per year to two (one fall, one spring) and to submit that resolution to the regional association's annual meeting.
The chair read draft language that said current requirements produce as many as 24 lockdown drills before the end of fifth grade and 52 by the end of high school and asserted that research is inconclusive about the safety benefits of four drills annually. "It is our responsibility as advocates for all children to mitigate potential trauma," the draft rationale read, according to the chair.
Board members debated several technical points: whether unplanned events that produce a lockdown (for example, a community safety incident) should count toward the total, whether the drills should be announced or unannounced, and how to phrase the district's submission so it would not be interpreted as the board unilaterally changing local requirements. One member proposed adding language to allow certain unplanned but legitimate lockdowns to count toward the requirement; another warned that planning and time-of-day variations are part of why some drills do not count under current rules.
A board member volunteered to draft the final text for submission (Liza, per transcript) using the association's online form, and the board agreed to continue the conversation and finalize language outside the meeting so the submission could be made when the association opens its process in spring. The chair indicated the submission window typically opens in April or May.
No final vote to change district policy was taken; the board agreed instead to prepare a resolution for submission to the regional meeting and to return with any refinements. The transcript records consensus to proceed with drafting and to avoid language that would appear to be a direct unilateral policy change by the district.
