Superintendent explains shelter‑in‑place protocol, ParentSquare rollout for multilingual alerts

Superintendent Curtis briefed the joint meeting on the district's emergency communication approach and explained why rapid messages are carefully drafted. When police advise a shelter‑in‑place or lockdown, the district places schools in the ordered status immediately and first confirms student and staff safety. Only then does the district prepare a factual, concise message for families. Curtis used a recent Upper West Street police incident as an example: the district placed schools in shelter‑in‑place, labeled the event a community incident in initial messages and promised to forward the police department's release when available.

Curtis described the district's new ParentSquare tool, adopted the prior summer, which supports app notifications and multilingual translation based on families’ reported home languages. Messages can go out by call, text and app, and the district posts updates to its website and social media when appropriate. He emphasized coordination with Pittsfield Police for any language that cites department findings.

Councilor Warren asked whether the superintendent or mayor had directly notified a constituent who wrote with concerns; Curtis and the mayor said they had met with that person and planned follow‑up public discussion items for the school committee. Both governing bodies voted to accept the presentation and place it on file.

Curtis invited families to contact the district, principals or the emergency and safety coordinator with questions after any incident and pledged to provide follow‑up messages confirming the end of a shelter‑in‑place and student status.