NVUSD reports 11 emergency-badge activations last year; district orders trainings and badge upgrade

District safety staff told the Napa Valley Unified School District board that the district recorded 11 "eight-click" Cintix crisis-alert activations from August through the last day of school — incidents the district says were concentrated at 8 of 26 school sites and involved only 11 employees out of about 1,600 staff.

"We did have a few incidents this year. There was a total of 11 incidents that occurred in the district throughout the year," said Joanna Navaro, coordinator of safety and emergency services. Navaro told trustees that eight of the events were inadvertent presses, two were medical emergencies and one was behavioral. She said law enforcement responded when dispatch received eight‑click alerts and that there were no malicious activations identified.

Navaro and Dr. Monica Ready outlined next steps: a district plan to replace badges with an updated model that differentiates tones for three‑click versus eight‑click alerts, annual hands‑on trainings and calendarized administrator test sessions in a test mode so staff can build muscle memory without triggering real alerts. The district also plans visual reminders, QR-linked training for substitutes, demo badges for practice and additional partner training for outside service providers.

Board members highlighted the importance of ongoing drills and training. The district said it will collect badges over the summer, issue replacement devices and continue to integrate the Cintix platform into emergency drills in September to reduce human-error activations.