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District to receive grant-funded digital facility maps; board discusses facility assessments and cautious active-shooter training
Summary
Critical Response Group will map Crosby-Ironton facilities on Feb. 5 under a grant with county partners. The board also discussed facility assessments, evacuation MOUs and a careful approach to active-shooter exercises, favoring classroom-level training and phased exercises to address staff concerns.
The Crosby-Ironton School Board heard a detailed update on school safety work: the district was selected for digital mapping by Critical Response Group (CRG), a grant-funded project with the county emergency response office that will produce standardized emergency response maps.
Administrators played an informational video on the CRG process and confirmed CRG will be on site at 10 a.m. Feb. 5 to begin digital mapping of floor plans and critical features. The superintendent said the project is funded by a grant in partnership with the county and will be provided at no cost to the district.
The administration also plans facility assessments at both Crest and the high school to identify vulnerabilities and strengths; building-and-grounds staff and selected principals will participate so the district can report findings this spring.
Board members raised questions about participation in emergency-response planning. The administration said most emergency-response-team meetings are internal planning forums for staff and first responders; board members will continue to receive reports rather than routinely attend planning meetings, though board members have taken part in tabletop exercises in the past.
On active-shooter training, the administration reported staff hesitation about full live-entry simulation exercises, even with students absent. The district is considering a middle-ground approach with staged classroom-level drills and targeted components to provide realistic training without full live-entry simulations. "There is a lot of interest in doing some type of a model where we do components of it and do more training within classrooms but not do the actual drills where we're coming in and doing the active live shooting," the superintendent said.
Administrators also said they are drafting memorandums of understanding with identified evacuation sites (Hartwood, the bus garage, Emanuel Lutheran and Graphic Packaging) to formalize response plans.
