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Rockport outlines emergency response teams, SEOP work and regional threat‑assessment training
Summary
Superintendent Mark Branco told the school committee the district meets regularly with local police and town leaders on emergency response, is finalizing a non‑public School Emergency Operations Plan (SEOP), and holds a regional behavioral threat assessment program including training from an FBI agent.
School leaders told the Rockport School Committee that safety planning continues to be a top priority and described three interlocking safety bodies: a District Emergency Response Team (DIRT), a Behavioral Threat Assessment & Management (BAM) team, and a developing School Emergency Operations Plan (SEOP).
Superintendent Mark Branco said DIRT — which includes the police chief, town administrator, the district's student‑services director and building principals — meets monthly to plan, review training and workshop scenarios. He credited the police chief with providing templates and regional leadership and said that teamwork has helped the district prepare operational responses.
On BAM, Branco said the district convenes a broader team of about 20 staff (assistant principals, deans, counselors, psychologists and BCBAs) that meets several times per year for topic‑specific training and tabletop exercises. He said the district recently hosted a regional BAM meeting attended by nearby districts and that FBI special agent Sarah Weldon provided a training on targeted violence in schools.
The superintendent said a comprehensive SEOP is nearly complete but will not be made public in full for safety reasons; the district will use portions of the SEOP to train staff in professional development sessions. Committee members asked whether students are aware of threat‑assessment teams and how the SRO participates; Branco said students may not know the internal details, that the SRO attends BAM at times, and that cross‑district drills are an aspiration as regional cooperation increases.
"We are creating our School Emergency Operations Plan that is the SEOP that will not become a public document," Branco said, adding that the chief has helped guide the SEOP development with templates. The committee discussed how to communicate to students and families without revealing operational details.
